Defending a Goblin Lair

[Brauron]

I'm building a dungeon crawl for next weekend's session of my current Pathfinder campaign, populated with goblins, aiming for a little bit of a Tucker's Kobolds-lite situation, and I'd like some advice on some of the goblins' defenses, if the Playground doesn't mind.

Situation: The PCs have declared themselves honor-bound to help those in need and wipe out orcs and goblinoids wherever they might be. They'll hear reports that suddenly families on the outskirts of town are simply disappearing, and the few eyewitnesses they can find report goblins to be to blame (Well, homebrew variant goblins with neon red skin and a few comical attributes that don't really alter them mechanically). PCs head off in the right direction, they find a cave system which the goblins have methodically enlarged and improved upon, making a substantial fortress out of it.

The Party consists of an Elf Evoker (level 7), a Human Cleric of Pelor (level 7), a Dwarf Crossbow Ranger (level 7), a Human Fighter/Sorcerer (level 7, 3 fighter four sorcerer), and an Elf Druid (level 6).

Entering the goblin lair involves sliding down a 60 foot slide, into a wide cave where a pair of "Arachnogres" (Giant, Advanced Ettercaps) will attack, but shouldn't prove too big a threat -- the main point of them is for the PCs to fight them, and make enough noise in doing so to alert the goblins of incoming intruders. On the far side of the cave is a three-part iron door -- a Small-sized door set inside a Medium-sized door set inside a Large-sized door, with an assortment of locks. In the absence of a party rogue, the PCs have a Ring of Lockpicking (Complete Warrior). Once through this door the fun begins.

Since this dungeon is strictly defensive, the goblins have an assortment of traps and other dissuasive methods clustered towards the entrance, in order to prevent intruders from getting in and stealing food/women & children/their collection of dented copper pieces. A lot of it isn't going to be about so much killing the PCs, as wearing down their resources and will to continue further.

There are going to be rooms where goblins are gathered in a room above, dropping Alchemist's Fire through murder-holes on to the PCs.

There are going to be hallways with "shooting galleries" on either side in which goblins with crossbows have readied actions to shoot anyone who passes in front of their arrow-slits.

Some hallways have portcullises spaced every five feet to separate and slow the party.

There's even a couple large rooms that goblins have trapped and transported Giant Slugs in to, which they'll try to lure the PCs into and then slam down portcullises behind them.

There's just one style of trap I'm wondering if I might be going "too far" with. I've got hallways in my notes where there are pit traps, five feet wide by ten feet long, where the trapdoor closes itself after someone falls through -- the trapdoors are triggered by anything more than 100 lbs in weight being put on it. The way I see it, there's a fulcrum at the halfway point and when the PCs step on one end, it gives way, they fall in, and the door does a 180 flip to reclose itself. Within these pits are patches of Green Slime, carefully cultivated by the goblins.

Is it too much for me to say, "A pit trap is triggered by the person leading. Please make a reflex save...okay, I'm afraid that won't be enough, and you fall ten feet. Rather than a hard stone surface, though, you find yourself on something soft, yielding, and faintly, greenly luminescent. It begins to corrode your armor, clothing, skin, and hair. What do you do now?"

Should I tone down the Green Slime to something less...Con-eating?

[Yahzi]

How do the goblins get out of the lair?

If the slide is too slick too climb, and if your players are so stupid as to jump on a one-way slide to an unknown hostile destination, then the slide should just dump them in a big pit of green slime, and the goblins should come out of their secret (5' tall) entrances and laugh.

[DoughGuy]

Probably a bit much. id sugest getting rid of the green slime. Apart from that sounds great.

[Randomguy]

Try making it brown mold instead of green slime, so that it's a bit less harsh.

[Thiyr]

I second brown mold. Doubly worth it if they are carrying torches or any other open flame. alternatively, punji stakes with liberally applied poisonous and/or diseased material (like, say, their waste material) are another good one. Later on, have the traps become more desparate, and by association larger and less controllable perhaps. A stampede of large herd animals, collapsing tunnels, etc. If you feel like being mean, consider the logical implications of combining brown mold and a vein of, say, lava (as a way to go scorched earth on the party. This is obviously intended to be the end, after they've evacuated everyone)

If you want them to run into actual enemies, I'm personally fond of the mounted combat route. Ended up doing that to a lower leveled party, using mounts for bull rushing into pit traps without beefing the goblins themselves up.

Rooms where the floor is mostly sand can be fun as well. Spring-loaded catapult traps, flinging nets, PCs, or other nasties can be entertaining.

Still, glad that thought is being put into goblinery. Because sadly, too few people realize that a goblin is a terrible thing to waste.

[Brauron]

Thank you. It might come down to a coin flip between brown mold and Filth Fever coated punji stakes -- our ranger had a very nasty experience with filth fever last time the party encountered goblins, at 5th level, and he's still a bit leery of them. As I recall, he came down with Goblin Rash simultaneously, which had him pretty blue -- being a high-CON dwarf and all.

Thiyr, I'd actually thought about including mounted goblins as a last line of defense -- riding Medium-sized monstrous spiders across the ceilings to establish sticky snares and trip-lines of webbing. And the Giant Slugs might make an interesting uncontrollable last-ditch effort, especially since they'll be able to Squeeze after the PCs through the five foot wide tunnels. And it wouldn't be too difficult to get the party sandwiched between two of them.