Alternate Physics Dungeon help [3.5]

[Lord.Sorasen]

So, in the campaign I'm running, the party is about to run into a sort of... Secret Society of Psionics (psionics in my setting are highly unusual, even if one of the members uses them). The idea is as follows: The head psion will put them through a series of tests, and if they pass them all, the psionic member will be granted some sort of magic item trophy type thing. It's incredibly generic standard affair sort of a thing.

What I want to do is, rather than making it a dungeon in the normal sense, simply make it 10 (or so, I haven't decided on the exact number) fights, in quick succession. To make the battles different, I want to have each of the fights take place with a certain catch. Generally, I want these to be in the very physics of the world. I know it's generic as hell, but bare with me. I'm wondering if anyone has any ideas.

Here's what I've come up with on my own:

Battle takes place on the hex grid rather than the square grid. Grid is checkered. Units on a "black" tile are considered incorporal. Turns are timed, forcing people to think more quickly. Units all take turns taking one move action; afterwords all units take one standard action. Repeat. All PCs have their physical and mental stats reversed: Strength becomes intelligence, constitution becomes wisdom, and dexterity becomes charisma (and vice versa). Players defeat certain group of enemies; in the next room they play AS the enemies, defeat themselves.

Or maybe the whole thing is a bad idea? Tell me what's up!

[jiriku]

Changing the environment radically is a good challenge. Changing the PCs radically is a bad one.

Taking move and standard actions separately requires you to consider where full-round actions and swift actions fall.

[Lateral]

Battle takes place on the hex grid rather than the square grid. Not challenging or different enough. Grid is checkered. Units on a "black" tile are considered incorporal. Could work with the right enemies. Turns are timed, forcing people to think more quickly. I like this one. Units all take turns taking one move action; afterwords all units take one standard action. Repeat. Makes stuff too complex; it'll screw up combat. All PCs have their physical and mental stats reversed: Strength becomes intelligence, constitution becomes wisdom, and dexterity becomes charisma (and vice versa). The fighter can't fight, and the casters can't cast. BAD IDEA. Players defeat certain group of enemies; in the next room they play AS the enemies, defeat themselves. Like this one.

[Axinian]

I really like that last one. You have to make sure, though, that PC's will actually have a chance of beating themselves.

A simple changing gravity puzzle can be very effective as well.

[Lord.Sorasen]

Changing gravity?

Also, I have to admit I, for whatever reason, thought that switching stats would change combat rolls.. Which now that I think about it is a ridiculous concept.

[Safety Sword]

Changing gravity?

Also, I have to admit I, for whatever reason, thought that switching stats would change combat rolls.. Which now that I think about it is a ridiculous concept.

They're psions, so, how about a room where your consciousness swaps to another body... *everyone swap character sheets with the person to your left*
When the encounter ends, all sheets go back to where they started... and then consciousness swaps back, so if you die in another body, it's your ORIGINAL body that dies at the end. :smallamused:

[Techsmart]

reverse gravity, especially as gravity wells (isolated cells) works wonders, as does no gravity.
Have areas of extreme/no friction.
fire now deals cold damage and vice versa. The party is fighting element-based enemies.
light-emitting objects (i.e. torches) give off darkness, while lack of these generates light. their enemies are affected normally.
Players can now breathe water (but not air), and aquatic critters can now breathe air (but not water). They are still in air. defeat the aquatics to survive.
The goblins are intelligent and the kobolds don't sound like yipping dogs, while the elves are uncivilized barbarians and dwarves are the best bards. Cry.
The room is entirely magnetic (similar to gravity). The magnetic field shifts 90 degrees in any one direction every 3 rounds.
time flows funny - As suggested, mess with the timing of actions. Maybe you must declare your standard action now, but it doesn't happen until your next step.

[Safety Sword]

The room is entirely magnetic (similar to gravity). The magnetic field shifts 90 degrees in any one direction every 3 rounds.

This... but in reverse.. non-magnetic characters are pushed around and metal tin cans are able to move about normally. Give the casters something to do other than destroying the encounter :smallbiggrin:

[Deathslayer7]

Have a bunch of platforms in the air, and certain "colored" squares which have gravity reversed on them. Have enemies at the top or at certain points. Since they have the high point, battling this is a lot tougher since the fighter has to get to them before he can fight them and the wizard can't just cast fireball to kill them all since they are so spread out. Ranged combat would probably be the preferred method here.

Oh and put pointed spikes at the ceiling. :smallwink:

[NichG]

Here's a few:

- The room is filled with a numbing aura that messes with self-perception. The players are unaware of how much hitpoint damage they've taken until it drops them (you keep track).

- A room where all the monsters are actually two squares to the left of where they appear to be. Run it as if the monsters have reach so its not immediately obvious, but they actually don't.

- A room where one section of the room resets back in time by two rounds every two rounds whenever there are no PCs in it (basically it remembers the round when the last PC left it), creating mirror of opposition-like duplicates of whatever was in that area previously. The flash-back erases enemies that are standing in it, so this can be used to attack as well.

- A room that is inherently fractal as you move towards its center, compressing space into non-perceptible dimensions. The effect of this is a clown-car like behavior where many creatures can pour out of a square in the center of the room because it is actually a highly compressed space. Shots fired across the fractal area pick up a factor of 2 miss chance every square they go, due to not ending up on the right branch of space.

[Feytalist]

Shift the whole room/encounter onto Limbo (or Limbo analogue). Everyone can concentrate to "fly" around, or concentrate to morph the terrain as they wish. Terrain and elements change randomly.

This will take some work to pull off, plus the added issue of 3D combat, but could be quite entertaining (and very chaotic).

[gomipile]

Just based on the title of this thread, you should have them fight dozens of catgirls at some point.

[LansXero]

Ever played Disgaea? I think it would give you a few ideas :D

[Telonius]

Momentum is reversed. The harder you attempt to hit, the less damage you actually do. Fighting Defensively will actually end up doing more damage, as will deliberately trying to do subdual. (Similar thing for magic - casting at a lower level will benefit you).

[Feytalist]

Ever played Disgaea? I think it would give you a few ideas :D

I lol'd.

Disgaea. That brings me back. Actually I only ever watched the anime :/

[ericgrau]

The room tilts 30 degrees in a random direction each turn, even sideways or upside down after enough turns. PCs will want to end turns near walls or use other means of safety.

30 degrees: high ground gives +1 attack bonus.
60 degrees: mild climb check to not fall
Falling: DC 15 reflex save to grab something nearby if there's something to grab. DC 15 tumble check to reduce distance.

Alternatively gravity changes to a random angle each turn, any of the 6 directions on a 6 sided die, and you need more extreme measures to avoid falling as it's unpredictable.

[LansXero]

I lol'd.

Disgaea. That brings me back. Actually I only ever watched the anime :/

Well, you can play on randomly generated square-grid maps with lots of different effects and can blow the entire map up by doing. . . stuff. Dont wanna derail too much, but it seems like what the OP wants to do, in a way,

[NNescio]

Well, you can play on randomly generated square-grid maps with lots of different effects and can blow the entire map up by doing. . . stuff. Dont wanna derail too much, but it seems like what the OP wants to do, in a way,

Now if someone has taken levels in Geomancer...


Changing gravity?

Also, I have to admit I, for whatever reason, thought that switching stats would change combat rolls.. Which now that I think about it is a ridiculous concept.

Switch around Ranged and Melee attack mods, perhaps? 'though that would still frustrate the melee guys a lot.

[Psyren]

Battle takes place on the hex grid rather than the square grid. Not challenging or different enough. Grid is checkered. Units on a "black" tile are considered incorporal. Could work with the right enemies. Turns are timed, forcing people to think more quickly. I like this one. Units all take turns taking one move action; afterwords all units take one standard action. Repeat. Makes stuff too complex; it'll screw up combat. All PCs have their physical and mental stats reversed: Strength becomes intelligence, constitution becomes wisdom, and dexterity becomes charisma (and vice versa). The fighter can't fight, and the casters can't cast. BAD IDEA. Players defeat certain group of enemies; in the next room they play AS the enemies, defeat themselves. Like this one.

I agree with this whole breakdown. (Why can't you just "Like" posts here?)

Also, I came into this thread expecting legions of dead catgirls. Playground, I am disappoint.

[alchemyprime]

I have a few that are lots of fun to try:

1. Spheres. Get some styrofoam balls from Arts and Crafts store. Decorate and put a grid on them. Place them on sticks and the sticks on a nice stabe base. Velcro some push pin bottoms onto the Minis and try that. Mike Krahulic tried this for his D&D game and I wanna try it for mine.

2. Teleporter tiles in a room. Make a map for yourself on what goes to what, and place a few Large size teleporters to let the PCs jump around. Now they're thinking with Portals!

3. Ashteri sand divers. I just used these guys in my IRL campaign, and they were diving under the sand and jumping out and diving back under, but water debuffed them and acted like concrete when mixed with the sand. So they couldn't dive into Wet sand and wet sand expelled them. The Water Cleric and his Water Devotion got to shine here.

4. Mirror Verse. Make a room that is perfectly symetrical, and make the PCs fight mirror versions of themselves (dark reflections work best). The best part is reverse EVERYTHING! (the Illusionist is a Necromancer, the fighter's +3 Frost GReatsword is a +3 Flaming Greatsword, etc). But to really drive it home? Have someone jump into the mirror is a DC 20 Wisdom check. Let one guy set up problems for the baddies in the Mirror verse and make the rest face off with them in the real world. Cast a debuff in the Mirrorside? It's a Buff in the Realside! Cast a fireball? It's an iceball! Someone makes a physics discussion and kills catgirls on Realside? The mirrorside gets Dogboys! Reflections are key here!

Just some ideas I messed with.

[NichG]

The floor is covered in tiles, each of which as a rune on it that roughly translates to a single letter in English. If you make a path moving along the ground from tile to adjacent tile that spells something, you get an effect at the end of your movement based on what you spelled.

So if they spell 'FIRE', it creates a firestorm on the battlefield. If they spell 'HEAL' or 'CURE' it hits them with a Heal spell. If they spell 'DIE', it throws a Power Word Kill effect into their next attack. You'd probably want to seed the field with some words for enemies to use, and figure out a way to adjucate the target of the effect (i.e. be generous and say all effects benefit the one who triggers them). Beyond that though, let the PCs surprise you with weird stuff, e.g. 'hey, I just spelled PLAY, what does that do?'.

[Qwertystop]

The floor is covered in tiles, each of which as a rune on it that roughly translates to a single letter in English. If you make a path moving along the ground from tile to adjacent tile that spells something, you get an effect at the end of your movement based on what you spelled.

So if they spell 'FIRE', it creates a firestorm on the battlefield. If they spell 'HEAL' or 'CURE' it hits them with a Heal spell. If they spell 'DIE', it throws a Power Word Kill effect into their next attack. You'd probably want to seed the field with some words for enemies to use, and figure out a way to adjucate the target of the effect (i.e. be generous and say all effects benefit the one who triggers them). Beyond that though, let the PCs surprise you with weird stuff, e.g. 'hey, I just spelled PLAY, what does that do?'.

Yeah, set up a few words in twisting patterns, then roll a Boggle board for the rest. Then again, I almost allways end up finding ZIT when I play Boggle, and I don't want to think about the result for that... :smalleek::smallyuk:

[AlterForm]

If you think you can put up with it, perhaps a board based on singularity chess (http://pmburgess.blogspot.com/2006/06/singularity-chess.html)?

[Epsilon Rose]

Have one room filled with psionic mist that dulls perception and forces facing rules (I believe they're listed in UA). Don't tell the PCs that's what's happening (just describe a distracting/far realmsy mist that has them on edge) and have some of the enemies stealth their way behind the party.