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gallagher
2010-07-19, 04:01 PM
so i was wondering, what are some really cool encounters to throw at players? and by cool, i mean ones that are either fun or interesting, or dangerous enough to change the way players behave.

one that i was thinking was that in the forested areas that are doubtless around, and in other appropriate areas, there are odds that one will awaken a swarm (i will definitely throw hellwasps at them at least once) to teach them that you cant just walk in the wilderness and not expect to get hit by something that you arent prepared for. you cant let the players think that the only encounters are things you can swing a sword at

Prodan
2010-07-19, 04:03 PM
you cant let the players think that the only encounters are things you can swing a sword at

You instead teach them to solve all their problems with fire.

Saya
2010-07-19, 04:05 PM
A room with four enemies (Likely fighters), each with Diehard, and the room has a permanent delay death effect?

gallagher
2010-07-19, 05:24 PM
You instead teach them to solve all their problems with fire.

hence the swarm of hellwasps :smallbiggrin:

i also thought that i should take them to a town where everyone talks in rhyme, and can only understand when people do the same.

Keld Denar
2010-07-19, 05:29 PM
3 Frost Giants controlled by a White Dragon.

What? You wanted a cool encounter, and they all have the [Cold] subtype.

Har har har!

aivanther
2010-07-19, 05:39 PM
Rust monsters. "Oh, you didn't get blueshine armor and everbright weapons?" (yes, I know it's cruel, but it's such a cheap enchantment...)

Water elementals in a room full of pools of water. I'm imagining something like Zelda-ocarina of time's Water Temple boss.

Were-canaries!

gallagher
2010-07-19, 05:40 PM
3 Frost Giants controlled by a White Dragon.

What? You wanted a cool encounter, and they all have the [Cold] subtype.

Har har har!

even better, in order to warn people of the dangers of global warming, i will have these guys show up in florida

Yukitsu
2010-07-19, 05:41 PM
A very crazy man with strong shadow conjurations, invisible spell and a lifetime has eaten nothing but false, invisible heroes feasts. He is now innately invisible, and partially not real.

Jyokage
2010-07-19, 05:50 PM
To the above poster....Wha?! I'm very interested in how that works.

Yukitsu
2010-07-19, 06:01 PM
It works if you're the DM.

It kills some cat girls sort of, but when you eat a shadow meal, you are eating food that isn't real. Over time, the shadow food and water gets absorbed into your body, and your cells start using bits of the shadow food to repair themselves, and to divide.

So after a certain amount of time, all of your real cells and tissues are replaced with fake, illusory ones.

If you add invisible spell to the mix, not only are those particles false, but they are also invisible. Also, you can be dispelled.

You can also succesfully disbelieve yourself.

AslanCross
2010-07-19, 06:07 PM
Chain Devil in a slaughterhouse, with all the meat chains. :smallamused:

Draig
2010-07-19, 06:12 PM
:smalleek:If your gonna throw something water temple-ish at them in any way be prepared for at least one of your players' head to explode.. the water temple in my eyes was the peak of Oh em ef ge and fml. :smallfurious:

Anyway for what to throw at the party if you want encounters they cant fight with brute force, throw either adverse weather conditions at them (tsunami anyone?) or even have random holes, pitfalls, mountains, etc basicall its as if the terrain works against them :smallsmile:

AslanCross
2010-07-19, 10:26 PM
I'll have to agree that terrain and weather are great additional challenges. A way of making the chain devil encounter even more interesting might be:

A chain devil hides out in a magical meat storage facility. The entire space is a magical freezer, and rows upon rows of sides of beef and pork hang on chains from the ceiling.

1. The floor is slick with ice, imposing balance checks. The chain devil can freely move on chains it's controlling with Dancing Chains, so it avoids the movement penalties.

2. The entire room is filled with cold vapor, and as such is foggy. Everything more than 20 feet away from the viewer has concealment relative to the viewer.

3. The room is filled with chains. The chain devil can attack from as far as 35 feet away, since it can control chains up to 20 feet away from it, and it can cause their length to increase up to 15 feet.

4. The room is cold enough to cause damage. Chain devils are immune to cold.

5. Give the chain devil fighter levels. And Improved Trip.

Cheesy74
2010-07-19, 10:36 PM
A final boss I have coming pits my players against a stationary foe, a being with eye rays similar to a beholder's that simply sits on the ground in the room they enter. Once all of them are inside (or any one of them strikes the foe) the room's floor tears apart, leaving only a few islands of earth underneath the PCs, floating over a hundred-foot-deep abyss (with some nasty undead at the bottom). Each round, on the boss's initiative, he swaps around the location of the islands randomly. Behind pillars, next to him, whatever is most convenient for him. The players have to leap between the platforms to avoid the room's hazards as well as work together and defeat the boss. I'm still working on details of what there is to hurt them and where these platforms will go.

Lysander
2010-07-19, 11:02 PM
How about a dungeon filled with summon monster traps that only bring a monster into existence for a few rounds at a time. But there are a lot of these traps. And the monsters can also set off the traps themselves. So the players' task isn't to kill the monsters since they're going to vanish anyway, but just evade their attacks and also prevent them from wandering and setting off chain reactions of appearing monsters.

Gerrtt
2010-07-20, 11:42 AM
One I think Dr. Wiley should have used back in 1990: a boss door that opens up into a room full of spikes and no platforms.

Bye bye blue bomber.

Seriously though, poll your players.

That or mindflayers, everybody loves a mindflayer.

Lhurgyof
2010-07-20, 11:46 AM
A forest? You could use fey "playing tricks" on the party, and taking their stuff, etc. To make another encounter harder.

Psyx
2010-07-20, 11:46 AM
You instead teach them to solve all their problems with fire.


How is that a bad lesson?

Alternatively, set a fight somewhere flammable, so as to teach them NOT to do this.


Also: Rust monsters. DAMMIT: someone else got there first.

Ear seekers?

A room full of various slimes, oozes and ick?

PairO'Dice Lost
2010-07-20, 11:57 AM
A forest? You could use fey "playing tricks" on the party, and taking their stuff, etc. To make another encounter harder.

The Wood Woad (MM3, I think) has the ability to essentially tree stride at will, so an interesting encounter would consist of several wood woads with levels in scout all in a dense forest, each jumping out of a tree, Spring Attacking past a PC, and jumping back into one. The PCs would need to make use of lots of readied actions and try to take out the trees to flush the wood woads out.

The Dark Fiddler
2010-07-20, 12:31 PM
It works if you're the DM.

It kills some cat girls sort of, but when you eat a shadow meal, you are eating food that isn't real. Over time, the shadow food and water gets absorbed into your body, and your cells start using bits of the shadow food to repair themselves, and to divide.

So after a certain amount of time, all of your real cells and tissues are replaced with fake, illusory ones.

If you add invisible spell to the mix, not only are those particles false, but they are also invisible. Also, you can be dispelled.

You can also succesfully disbelieve yourself.

Hmm... what would that do to the wizard's kids? Is being invisible genetically inheritable? Raises way too many questions for my no-bio brain...

Adam...?
2010-07-20, 01:33 PM
In terms of interesting encounters, I'm drawn to the final encounter of this interesting House of Leaves inspired "no combat" quest I pulled on my PCs a week or so back. Basically had them trying to escape from a malevolent spatially warping house.

I drew up a quick floor plan for an abandoned two-story house, and after they spent a week or so exploring an infinite maze of corridors located in the house's closet, they finally found their way out and the encounter started.

I marked the locations of windows and doors on the map for the PCs reference, and then had the house rotate 90 degrees, basically dumping them back towards the open closet. Then everyone got to take turns in initiative order, as they tried to escape. The House itself got to act twice a round, and it could do fun things like further rotate around, slope walls/floor, expand/contract spaces, and crush people between walls.

Kinda weird, but it led to some fun instances. Like the party Rogue and Wizard types hanging on to the stair railing like monkey bars, over a 20 ft. drop onto the opposite wall/open closet space leading to an infinite abyss. And when they toss a rope down to the Cleric-type and he grabs on, the space between them starts expanding. He holds on for dear life as rope's slack ends, and he's hauled into the air. Meanwhile, Mr. Wizard botches a climb check and plummets down what is now a 70 ft. drop. Other shenanigans ensue.


Hmm... what would that do to the wizard's kids? Is being invisible genetically inheritable? Raises way too many questions for my no-bio brain...
I guess the children would inherit one set of regular chromosomes, and one set of invisible shadow chromosomes. Assuming the mother and child kept eating regular food, they'd turn out perfectly normal. In theory.

Yukitsu
2010-07-20, 09:17 PM
Hmm... what would that do to the wizard's kids? Is being invisible genetically inheritable? Raises way too many questions for my no-bio brain...

I don't think real biology works with non-real peoples... My guess is this is where imaginary freinds come from. :smallbiggrin:

reptilecobra13
2010-07-20, 09:35 PM
It works if you're the DM.

It kills some cat girls sort of, but when you eat a shadow meal, you are eating food that isn't real. Over time, the shadow food and water gets absorbed into your body, and your cells start using bits of the shadow food to repair themselves, and to divide.

So after a certain amount of time, all of your real cells and tissues are replaced with fake, illusory ones.

If you add invisible spell to the mix, not only are those particles false, but they are also invisible. Also, you can be dispelled.

You can also succesfully disbelieve yourself.

Holy crap, it's René Descartes at the bar!

Greenish
2010-07-20, 10:04 PM
A chain devil hides out in a magical meat storage facility.Pork futures warehouse!

Hmm... what would that do to the wizard's kids? Is being invisible genetically inheritable? Raises way too many questions for my no-bio brain...Acquired characteristics are not inherited. (In most cases.)

Yukitsu
2010-07-20, 11:07 PM
Acquired characteristics are not inherited. (In most cases.)

This would be if you kept up that diet while pregnant though... Now there is such a thing as "a little bit pregnant." :smallbiggrin:

RE:Insanity
2010-07-21, 05:26 AM
Gnome wizards summoning monsters and riding blink dogs while it rains.

mobdrazhar
2010-07-21, 04:44 PM
Gelatinous Cubes... everyone loves them :smallbiggrin:

Tyndmyr
2010-07-21, 04:50 PM
Rust monsters dragons. "Oh, you didn't get blueshine armor and everbright weapons?" (yes, I know it's cruel, but it's such a cheap enchantment...)

Fixed that for you.

Also fun: Dragons that use illusions to look like other dragons.

Even better, a blue dragon with a metabreath feat to have flame breath. Distribute patches of brown mold strategically around the walls, specifically in the door region.

Slanted black floor. Black pudding. Hole in floor to fit the pudding. Grease traps.

the humanity
2010-07-21, 04:55 PM
a lich/necropolitan sorcerer spamming stun effects with drowned backing him up.

Yora
2010-07-21, 04:58 PM
You instead teach them to solve all their problems with fire.

For instance this very threads problem:

Fight on a bridge. On fire!!!
Fight in a warehouse. On FIRE!!!
Fight in a wooden fort, ON FIRE!!!
Fight in front of a red dragons cave, and set the surrounding forst ON FIRE!!!

Every fight gets cool by just setting the environment on fire.

Tyndmyr
2010-07-21, 04:59 PM
On a wagon, rolling down the side of a mountain.

On fire.

Drascin
2010-07-21, 05:03 PM
The Wood Woad (MM3, I think) has the ability to essentially tree stride at will, so an interesting encounter would consist of several wood woads with levels in scout all in a dense forest, each jumping out of a tree, Spring Attacking past a PC, and jumping back into one. The PCs would need to make use of lots of readied actions and try to take out the trees to flush the wood woads out.

In that same vein, Banshraes are great forest encounters. Murderous Fae with a liking for getting people lost or getting them into traps, and with good Hide and Move Silently scores, and flute songs that can cause effects from shaken to forcing people to keep moving.

After an encounter with three of these babies, my players' reaction to forests tends to include wishes for flamethrowers :smallwink:.

Gorgondantess
2010-07-21, 05:04 PM
Hmm... what would that do to the wizard's kids? Is being invisible genetically inheritable? Raises way too many questions for my no-bio brain...

That's interesting... at first I was going to quote the lamarckian evolution thing, but the actual chromosomes would be made of illusions...
I suppose the lady would just need to fail a will save to get pregnant.:smalltongue::smalltongue:

Dr.Epic
2010-07-21, 05:10 PM
Fihyrs: Auto kills with sunlight. If you fight them during the day and can create a window easy kill.

gallagher
2010-07-21, 05:26 PM
Fihyrs: Auto kills with sunlight. If you fight them during the day and can create a window easy kill.
dr epic, i must ask, why are you on a list of scary things (according to your sig)?

PersonMan
2010-07-21, 06:10 PM
ON FIRE!!!

Yes!

A race against the clock to fight Sahuagin soldiers in their underwater temple-ON FIRE!!!
A battle inside an ancient tomb slowly filling with water, with mummies everywhere...ON FIRE!!!
A fight with a bullrush-friendly group of Scrag Trolls on a ship during an intense storm...ON FIRE!!!

Tinydwarfman
2010-07-21, 08:25 PM
Yes!

A race against the clock to fight Sahuagin soldiers in their underwater temple-ON FIRE!!!
Of course, this is actually represented by an undersea volcano that is becoming active during the fight, and jets of boiling water are coming out the fissures.


A battle inside an ancient tomb slowly filling with water, with mummies everywhere...ON FIRE!!!
Of course, the walls are on fire, and the mummies are resilient to normal damage, but not to fire, and so you must bullrush them against the walls before the water puts the fire out.



A fight with a bullrush-friendly group of Scrag Trolls on a ship during an intense storm...ON FIRE!!!

This one is just easy. Plenty of ships light on fire during an intense storm, with all that gunpower below deck. Haven't you seen any pirate/swashbuckler movies?

PersonMan
2010-07-21, 08:29 PM
This one is just easy. Plenty of ships light on fire during an intense storm, with all that gunpower below deck. Haven't you seen any pirate/swashbuckler movies?

Bah, just lightning the mast ON FIRE!!! and let it fall down, forcing the PCs to deal with reduced communication/mobility. Also, they can bull rush the scrags into the burning mast.

Also, mummy idea? Stolen for a oneshot. 100%.

Algerin
2010-07-21, 09:35 PM
Maybe not an interesting one, but definatly a very irritating one for players to figure out.

4 drow, fighter 1
Mwk tower shields, Mwk or +1 Longspears(for 10 foot reach)

Have two of them set up in a 10 foot corridor(or squeeze into a five foot corridor), and set up their tower shields. the other two behind them, now make ranged attacks with the longspears against the people trying to move the two in front of them.

add more drow for wider corridors. 16 drow can make a full circle(though that would be a bit cheesy)

My players actually resorted to breaking the tower shields, in which case, the one with the broken tower shield just swapped spots with the one behind it.

For extra fun, have the tower shield be ON FIRE.

Skeppio
2010-07-21, 11:09 PM
Have the party warped to the Elemental Plane of Fire. The ground is on fire. The rivers are on fire. The air is on fire. Even the fire is on fire!

Serpentine
2010-07-21, 11:27 PM
Mine are in the thread linked to in my sig. I still want feedback on one of them! It should totally be posted in before it drops off into oblivion because it's, like, a super good idea, y'know?

icastflare!
2010-07-21, 11:32 PM
I love using this encounter.


The party enters a room with flesh like walls and some golems in the middle of the room. After a couple rounds of combat, the wals begin to form faces and start yelling things like " Your face is similar to rotten cheese!", " Those boots are so out of last season", and " I will tell my mom about you!" and other non threatening things like above. After you deal with the golems, you must try to talk to the wall to let you out. It will act like a stubborn 5 year old and you will have to either bribe it with shiny objects or try to break it down. Trying to break it down would be bad off course because the wall then begins to let loose a river of blood and try to drown the characters. If they can swim to the cieling without drowning, they can easily break the ceiling and it turns out it is just some gnome wizards.

Kantolin
2010-07-21, 11:40 PM
I'm particularly fond of moving areas. This can be supernatural, like magical floating platforms and the like, or highly mundane, like fighting on a series of rafts/logs that are moving around. That's a particularly fun one, especially with rapids andthe like.

PersonMan
2010-07-22, 07:08 AM
A temple to a fire deity, therefore constantly burning, is being flooded by an opened portal to the elemental plane of water. Eventually it collapses and the PCs must escape as the walls and roof fall off. At first, the summoned creatures/denizens/clerics try to fight them, but eventually they just start running. Eventually four large stones, all glowing, come out of the portal and it closes. Then, all of the water coalesces into a huge Colossus Giantly Huge Water elemental, with debris at the surface. The PCs need to climb onto it and destroy the stones, or it will destroy [city/nation/country/world]!

...Wow, I just came up with a great climax for a one-off I'm running.

For more fun: ON FIRE!!!

Roc Ness
2010-07-22, 08:24 AM
For the Forested Area!

Get access to MMII. Then get it's 3.5 update. (Somewhere on the Wizard's site...)

Have them accidentally startle (I dunno, annoy, taunt?) a flock of Corrolaxes (magic parrots with DR/5 Cold Iron, Spell Resistance and At-Will Color Spray), and then have a bunch of weak, confused but determined druids rush to their (the Corrolaxes') aid.

Result? PCs are more-often-than-not stunned, because they have to get a natural 1 on their saves sometime, and there's a good deal of those birds color-spraying every single round. In the meantime, 3 or four spellcasting animals are slowly whittling them down... :smallbiggrin:

The incredible annoyance of slowly being trounced by 1/2 CR birds and low-level NPCs should be memorable enough and humiliating enough to make them watch out next time, right?

EDIT: Heck, instead of druids, you might wanna throw in Hellwasps. Provided the hellwasps have a reason not to also get blasted by the Corrolaxes, or if the hellwasps are immune to mind-affecting abilities.