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Thajocoth
2009-05-29, 03:52 PM
My players are about to enter the tower of a wizard. The wizard has tapped into powers from the Elemental Chaos and specializes in rituals, especially portals. He's also the highest level caster in the region. His tower houses an artifice that uses portals to protect the region. However, it's been found that he's turned traitor to the region, so the party is being sent in deal with him. His tower is in the center of a large city.

So, I figured out all sorts of creatures and such that I want to put into the tower; results of his side experiments and things from the Elemental Chaos. And then it occurred to me that the tower itself was quite boring... So I've been trying to think of more interesting terrain features. I thought of having open portals on the battlefield, but I figured that might be too confusing for the players. Maybe I'll do that for the final fight against this wizard...

What do you think of these sorts of terrain features?

Open portals between various squares on the battlefield
Terrain that moves you at the start of your turn
Invisible terrain (looks like a pit, but isn't)
Tiles that can be triggered to pop up to provide cover

Learnedguy
2009-05-29, 03:56 PM
After the wise words of Valve, when you introduce a new gameplay element, you want your players to get to do these things 1; Train 2; Confirm 3; Master

Meaning that if you want to throw in some teleportation traps, first put one in a situation where the players can freely experiment with one without stress. Then give them a minor challenge that requires them to use the new element and finally put in the element in a more challenging situation (like a fight)

Thajocoth
2009-05-29, 04:20 PM
After the wise words of Valve, when you introduce a new gameplay element, you want your players to get to do these things 1; Train 2; Confirm 3; Master

Meaning that if you want to throw in some teleportation traps, first put one in a situation where the players can freely experiment with one without stress. Then give them a minor challenge that requires them to use the new element and finally put in the element in a more challenging situation (like a fight)

Oh, of course. As a game developer, I'm quite familiar with the concept.

What I'd do for the portals is this:
All doors in the tower are portals. It's 1 square of movement to travel from the portal's space to it's other side's space. It grants cover as well. While adjacent to the portal, it's other end's square is within melee range and it's possible to fire a ranged spell/weapon through the portal. The first couple times they come across such portals, they'd be against walls, right where you'd expect to find doors.

If I plan on making them more prominent, which I haven't completely decided on as I'm uncertain if it would be confusing or not... Have one door lead not against a wall, but in the middle of a room. And later, finally, both ends in the same room, neither against a wall. If I were to go all the way with it, I'd have a room spanning 3 floors with a few of these portals for navigating what floor one's on, with some sort of pit below.


The moving terrain would simply be akin to conveyor belts.

The invisible terrain is fairly straightforward.

For the raising tiles, I was thinking: When a creature steps on a space adjacent to it, it pops up, providing cover. The players might detect it's pressure plates and decide to disarm it anyway.

KillianHawkeye
2009-05-29, 05:17 PM
If you're going to stock the place with portals anyway, why not have an entire level of the tower (or two) actually BE on another plane? You could have a room with random flame spurts or a room with moving platforms above a pit (which could itself be a portal), or a room made entirely out of ice. Or a room made entirely out of ice that contains random flame spurts. It is the Elemental Chaos, after all. It doesn't have to make sense. :smallwink:

If the wizard can easily fly or teleport, you can put in some really bizarre terrain and make the players take the hard way around (unless they can also fly or teleport).

Since the wizard has turned to evil, perhaps you could put some Abyssal features in as well (not to mention demons). This makes sense because the 4E Abyss is within the Elemental Chaos, and this wizard could have discovered some portals into it. You could make use of an Abyssal Wellspring, Elemental Seepage, Energy Crystals, or some of the other planar terrain types in Manual of the Planes.

Thajocoth
2009-05-29, 06:18 PM
If you're going to stock the place with portals anyway, why not have an entire level of the tower (or two) actually BE on another plane? You could have a room with random flame spurts or a room with moving platforms above a pit (which could itself be a portal), or a room made entirely out of ice. Or a room made entirely out of ice that contains random flame spurts. It is the Elemental Chaos, after all. It doesn't have to make sense. :smallwink:

If the wizard can easily fly or teleport, you can put in some really bizarre terrain and make the players take the hard way around (unless they can also fly or teleport).

Since the wizard has turned to evil, perhaps you could put some Abyssal features in as well (not to mention demons). This makes sense because the 4E Abyss is within the Elemental Chaos, and this wizard could have discovered some portals into it. You could make use of an Abyssal Wellspring, Elemental Seepage, Energy Crystals, or some of the other planar terrain types in Manual of the Planes.

Excellent idea! I knew there was a book I forgot to look through... I'm already adding Fire elemental creatures from the Chaos, as well as a Slaad Tadpole. To have a section be in the Chaos itself makes sense. (There aren't so many elemental creatures in the MM below level 8 that aren't fire for some odd reason.)

Looking through the Manual of the Planes though, I don't see much I can use on a level 4 party Some of these terrain types, like you mentioned, but none of the traps or monsters. I can have some of the place be all elemental...

As for Abyssal stuff, this wizard is under the delusion that what he's doing is for the greater good...

EDIT: Thanks for the suggestions. I believe I've thought up 6 different and interesting battlefields for the players to fight their way through (or avoid in some cases, depending on paths chosen). I'm marginally worried about the last one... The villain has an attack that teleports the players 15 feet into the air, and if cast from the top floor of the battlefield, it's technically possible to drop a player 35 feet, dealing 3d10 damage. (The attack relies on fall damage.) They'd get a save or two to catch an edge or two on the way down to take less... Though I suppose I wouldn't cast the spell over the deepest area like that. 25 feet = 2d10 is ok enough. (It recharges on a 6.) He has a teleport speed of 4, and the 4 floors are 10 feet apart each, so he can jump 2 floors in a single move. (The platforms are all transparent, so he has line of sight.) There are no stairs either, just portals. He relies mostly on Magic Missle. His other at-will, Quarterstaff Strike, has almost no chance to hit.

The humanoids are all either Warforged (he took over a Warforged Factory at some point), from another plane, Eladrin, or templated to be an Ooze Humanoid (the players know he was experimenting with ooze/humanoid hybrids as well.)

For the battlefields I chose:
Standard Entryway:
1 entryway with stairs in the middle, ranged attackers on the balcony, melee attackers below, and a pair of magic crossbow turrets.

Warforged Rally:
1 room full of conveyor belts and pits with 5 Warforged Soldiers, except they have 5 tridents each instead of a longsword. The holes lead down 10 feet to the illusion room.

Laboratory:
There's a Bladeling operating some artifices and 4 tanks on the far wall containing 2 fire bats & 2 slaad tadpoles. There are a bunch of energy crystals powering them and a phase rock under the Bladeling. When he sees the players, he releases the tanks (as his 1st standard).

Hidden Maze:
There's a maze of blocks that raise 5 feet when you step adjacent to them. Luckily they happen to provide cover. At the other end are a group of ranged attackers. The players can navigate the maze while being hit with a few ranged attacks, break/disarm/climb a tile, or merely jump over the pressure plate. (Or, if they think of something else that works, that's great too.)

Illusion Room:
There's long grass (difficult terrain) and trees, but that's all really illusory terrain. Also, the walls all look 1 square closer than they are, and it's behind them that the gnomes and choker are hiding. Beneath the illusory terrain there is a pit.

Final Battle:
4 floors, each 10 feet apart (the bottom 1 is for catching people just in case, but it's impossible to fall 2 floors down to it.) Up the center is a beam of arcane energy that acts as elemental seepage. It's the beam of arcana flowing straight from the Elemental Chaos. (It's the center 4 squares of each floor.) The platforms are all transparent, and there's a great view of the city through the transparent walls.