The Playground Designs Awesome Encounters

[mattie_p]

So, a while back a poster offered to design encounters for you, based on what you wanted to do. I decided to try to revive this, but hopefully in a collaborative format. What I would like to do is in the style of Simple Q/A threads, where you post the desired encounter info, and volunteers post the encounter.

The reason I am posting this is because while many of us are DMs, we are designing encounters for our own group on a constant basis, and may get DM fatigue. Allowing others to design encounters for us could inject an outside perspective into the equation, allowing for better gameplay with the group. Also, sometimes you just need another set of eyes.

Please post as much info as you like - the more info, the more tailored the encounter can be.

Minimum information should be the system (3.5, 3.P, Pathfinder, other d20), desired CR, location (dungeon crawl, wilderness, city, etc), and optimization level of your group.

Optional information includes the style of fight you are looking for (trippers, will-save heavy, etc), party make-up, specific details that must be included (I really need a ninja to pop up in round 3 with a ring of regeneration), or anything else you think might be helpful. Sources permitted or restricted might be helpful, as well as setting (Eberron, Faerun, etc).

More than one volunteer can provide an encounter (the more the merrier), but please do not criticize each other's encounters within this thread.

Let me start.


I am requesting an encounter for a 3.5 group, ECL 6, CR 7-8, dungeon crawl, low-op group. I'm looking for an animal/magical beast encounter to toss into a crawl that kinda makes sense in a natural cavern. I just need a fresh set of eyes, got a bunch of other encounters that culminate with a necromancer (with zombies) racing towards the McGuffin, just need one more obstacle. Thanks

[Runestar]

I am requesting an encounter for a 3.5 group, ECL 6, CR 7-8, dungeon crawl, low-op group. I'm looking for an animal/magical beast encounter to toss into a crawl that kinda makes sense in a natural cavern. I just need a fresh set of eyes, got a bunch of other encounters that culminate with a necromancer (with zombies) racing towards the McGuffin, just need one more obstacle. Thanks

My first though would be to simply use a bulette. :smalltongue:

[mattie_p]

My first though would be to simply use a bulette. :smalltongue:

*slapping my head* This is why I posted this. I like it. Anyone else want to post an encounter so the collective wisdom of the playground can help?

[Toy Killer]

The party is slowly walking into a nest of 6 Bloodsilk Spiders (Pg. 24, MMIV).

In the center of the 30X40ft room is a column of webbing with three zombies entrapped inside. The spiders don't particularly care for the zombies; They don't have any satiable blood to eat, but they aren't quite able to clear them out.

The Zombies aren't particularly inhibited either, just simply reach out and moan softly for something to eat. cooperatively, they can pull out around 5 feet from the column still entangled.

Basically two encounters at the price of one, the zombies are relatively harmless if the party stays away from the center, giving the spiders the advantage (as they can climb on walls). Damaging the bloodsilk webs in the center will make it easier for the zombies to escape, but keeping them there makes it harder to provide any range support (Especially AoE's like fireball, since the party members and spiders will be up against the walls). Both the spiders and the zombies start to crank up the CR up too high.

This gives the players plenty of options to play to their own advantages, and everyone can contribute to the encounter advantageously. Weather they drop AoEs and the cleric turns the Zombies, or they swing blades and dodge the reach of the zombies while they take out the spiders, they can kick ass the way they chose.

[BowStreetRunner]

My first though would be to simply use a bulette. :smalltongue:

I like the idea of the bulette encounter. But beyond merely running into a bulette, you have to build some suspense with the landshark encounter.

The party begins in an area of natural stone tunnels that open up into a broad natural cavern with numerous stalactites and stalagmites dotting a sandy floor. There are signs that an underground river sometimes runs through this region - perhaps on a seasonal basis - but it is relatively dry now. As they move across the sandy cavern floor they discover the remains of another party, several days old. There are a number of bodies that have been torn limb-from-limb, the flesh almost entirely devoured - these appear to be humans and half-orcs. A half-eaten dwarf lies nearby and the body of an elf, clawed to pieces but uneaten.

The discovery of the remains should be made far enough into the cavern to make going forward to the stone tunnels on the far side no better an option than going back. If the party figures out the danger is a bulette at this point, they can try to come up with a way out without being detected by its tremorsense. Otherwise, it will detect them as they move away from the remains and start closing on them.

[mattie_p]

Awesome detail so far. I love it, and I bet my players will too. Thanks for the tips, I've been making too many NPCs and brain isn't working on this anymore. Feel free to keep posting ideas.

Now, the real question is, does anyone else want a hand in making an encounter? That's what I hope this thread will turn into - helping DMs design awesome encounters for their players.

[Palanan]

This comes at the absolute perfect time for me, because I've just started designing an oceanic encounter and I could use some input. This is 3.5 with a mid-op, primarily martial party.

Specifics are spoilered below. My players, go back!

The site is a long-fallen temple plaza, now drowned beneath a hundred feet of water; it's located on a seamount in open ocean, a thousand miles from land.

Most of the site is eroded rubble, long since encrusted with marine life; the entire seamount is overgrown with a dense coral forest. Only one area remains strangely clear: a circular plaza with four spheres spaced around its periphery, each wrought of metal and glass. (Probably the Playground knows the map I'm working with, which I found somewhere on the interweb.)

The site fits into the overall storyline for the campaign, as a waypoint for an ancient exodus; I'm drawing on the Temple of Five from BSG. The circular plaza provides some indication of where the exodus traveled next, which the PCs will unravel once they begin to explore the site.

But, this information won't come for free, and I'd like some sort of marine challenge here. The PCs are mid-fifth-level and should be able to survive underwater--but I'd like the challenge to be something memorable and uniquely marine. Any ideas?

Thanks in advance from a slightly frazzled DM....

[mattie_p]

Palanan, for some reason I am thinking warlock. Level 6 warlock, amphibious (stormwrack) mineral warrior (forgotten realms - underdark) warlock. Tactics include sniping underwater using eldritch blast, and burrowing to move to a new spot. (ECL 7)

He has hellrime blast invocation, any creature struck must make fort save or have -4 dex for 10 minutes. He is pumping his DC with ability focus and high charisma. (DC 19). Other invocations include miasmic cloud, breath of the night, darkness, and devil's sight (he took extra invocation). Your warlock here values his privacy and has been focusing on making a bermuda triangle out of the area.

[Chilingsworth]

Well, when I read "drowned temple," I was reminded of a merfolk or aquatic elf (don't remember which) vampire my group encountered once. (A vampire born of a race with a swim speed isn't vulnerable to water.) That would probably be too strong for your party, though. Maybe make it a non-combat encounter? (i.e. the vampire will give the party the info it needs in exchange for something it needs from the surface (a place it finds distasteful to visit.) Alternatively, you could make it a vampire spawn instead.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

If you want something a bit more exotic, include a large cavern with a narrow path going around the edge of a murky, treacherous-looking pool. As they're about to leave they run face first into a Wall of Force blocking the exit, and a Darktentacles (MM2) springs out of the water and grabs everyone, something like this scene (http://youtu.be/DDOGR1mmb8c?t=1m32s).

[Techwarrior]

Non-combat encounters with something that will potentially definitely kill the character's aren't exactly viable. That's like saying "There's only a 1 in a million chance' that it'll happen. It's a story, it WILL HAPPEN (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0584.html).

Underwater Temple
As always, the solution is undead specifically kobold ghosts.
The temple is inhabited by the spirits of the kobold shamans who ran the temple. The lead kobold is a Cloistered Cleric 2 Kobold Ghost (CR 4). He has 2 first level Kobold Ghost Adepts (CR 2 individually) as assistants. Total CR is 5 I believe, though it might be 6. They were divining the exact information the party was looking for, when some overly cliched mythic evil in your backstory killed them and cast the temple into the sea. They haunt the area, even now, waiting to deliver the results of their divination to the right hands.

Now the party could get away completely unscathed, or they could have a serious threat from kobolds. Without going Tucker-style.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

If you want a fight completely underwater (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=265266#2)....

[Palanan]

Thanks for the suggestions so far, everyone. I'd like to avoid vampires, ghosts, etc., since the first chapters of the campaign were pretty ghost-heavy, and I'm looking for something quintessentially marine.

Mattie, I do like that aquatic warlock idea, maybe combined with some immense alien creature from the depths. I'm looking for something to truly terrify the PCs, and seriously disturb the players if at all possible. Between this creature and the aquatic warlock, I'd like this to be an almost overwhelming encounter for a small fifth-level party.

Come on, guys, don't hold back. Make my players know fear.

:smalltongue:

[Toy Killer]

The key to making your players know fear in the game is bringing them in deeper then they realize, or taking the game straight out of them. Blur the line of safty between them and the character sheet.

Simple things like asking them to take a round when nothing is going on, when they know the enemy is coming, but isn't there yet easily builds that tension, and your using their capacity to influance the world their characters live in to show them they arn't as powerful as they would first appear.

This encounter assumes that the party has a non-permanent means to breathe underwater, and that the temple has a living quarters and run by at least loosely good people.

Bodies Float
The party is going in deeper into the temple when they hear a shrieking laughter. if they follow the laughter, they dive deeper down a stairway, into a room with a shimmering ball of iridescence, darting back in forth, giggling as it does so. The walls are spoiled with colorful paintings and children motifs, chipped and aged over the years. The ceiling is a giant dome, with an bubble of breathable air, however, the nature of this room becomes apparent. the orphans who used to call this room home, have long passed and are floating, bloated and with huge elongated smiles across their panicked faces.

The 'ball' is a Living Tasha's Hideous Laughter/Gentle repose [Note: the Gentle repose is just a bit of flavor, to explain why the bodies would still be there, I didn't take it into account for the building of the Ooze] (Caster level 7), and it eagerly wants to play...

The Laughter of Orphan's
Large Ooze (Living Tasha's hideous laughter)
HD: 7D10+7 (42hp)
Speed: swim 20
Armor Class: 11 (-1 Size, +2 deflection bonus)
Base Attack Bonus: +4 (Slam)
Attack: Slam (1d6+2 And Spell effect[Will Save DC13])
Full Attack: Slam (1d6+2 and Spell effect[Will Save, DC 13])
Space/reach: 10ft/5ft
Special Attacks: Tasha's Hideous Laughter[Will Save, DC 13], Engulf
Special Qualities, Blindsight 60ft, DR 10/Magic, Ooze Traits, Spell Resistance 17
Saves Fort +3, Ref +3, Will +1
Abilities STR 12, Dex 9, Con 12, Int -, Wis 9, Cha 12
Skills: -
Feats: -
Enviorment: where children were around perpetually and suddenly stopped.
Organization: Solitary
CR: 5
Treasure: None
Alignment: always Neutral

[Kazyan]

Another idea for the underwater battle: Overhead, they hear a cackling, followed by a roar that vibrated the water. Something comes careening down and stops above them. It looks like...a tiger, crossed with a fish, with bright blue scales that make it hard to see, and a wickedly spined dorsal fin. Atop it rides a creature with a deep, puce body decked in coral-and-shell armor, her face wrinkled and her hair billowing out behind her. With a laugh, she brandishes her harpoon and gestures towards the party with a finger.

They're fighting a Fiendish Nixie Knight 2 with EWP (Harpoon), riding a Half-Blue Dragon Sea Cat. Both of them love them some reach. The Nixie will use Knight's Challenge to get people to attack her, despite the Sea Cat's reach and wicked bite. If anyone tries to flee, the Sea Cat can shoot a line of lightning at them. The Nixie can also charm or use harpoon attacks as a debuff, and a charge attack with the mounted cat can be deadly. In advance, the Nixie has used her Water Breathing ability on her mount.

[mattie_p]

Combine the warlock with a mount/pet. Consider the Seryulin from MM3 - abberation (aquatic) - slug type thing.

Unadvanced it is CR 7, a greater seryulin is CR 10 (might be too much for the group, assuming 4 level 5 characters).

Any creature hit by its slam gets 1d6 damage due to a contact poison next round unless poison immune. 1/day sticky spray (DC 17 reflex) or become entangled. Grants the rider freedom of movement.

Could be a lot of fun. Another option is Corrupture from MM4, ooze creature, but I don't see how that wouldn't be trying to eat the warlock all day every day.

[Toy Killer]

Another option is Corrupture from MM4, ooze creature, but I don't see how that wouldn't be trying to eat the warlock all day every day.

Which, honestly, would be kinda fun to see. A warlock with it's 'pet' Ooze that it can't quite control like he/she thinks they can.

[mattie_p]

Well, true. Just because you encounter two creatures doesn't mean that they are collaborating. You could walk in on two antagonists.

Another option is a dark-creature (template from ToM) giant octopus. This should be a sneaky grapple bastard, using HiPS (100 feet underwater should be enough to provide low light conditions, and therefore concealment enough to hide) to sneak up on an unsuspecting party member, grapple them, and then use jet to run away swim away and eat them. It is hard enough to deal with underwater movement as a surface dweller, and then to get grappled and jetted taken away from the party to get strangled?

EDIT: Can't use jet in a grapple, it is a full round action not permitted by grappling rules. Can still swim away though.

[Palanan]

Hmm. More interesting ideas, and definitely some creatures to look up. Something large, amorphous, with tentacles...yeah. I don't have ToM, but I'll look at any template that says "ravenous spawn of the lightless deep."

As for the warlock, that's a class I've rarely looked at. In fact, this would be a good time to ask about a homebrew variant that someone around here mentioned just a couple of months ago. Apparently their version of the warlock resulted from exposure to hard magic while still unborn.

Does anyone remember whose homebrew that was, and whether it had different abilities from the standard version? The idea caught at my mind, and I've been waiting for an opportunity to use one.

[Elvenoutrider]

I've found one of the best things to throw at a group of adventurers is another group of adventurers. One underwater encounter I had in a campaign was a squad of sahuagin with a blaster wizard riding on a giant sea turtle. The sahuagin had built an enclosed fortification on top of the sea turtle that allowed them to fire through slits. The party will have to breach the defenses or aim spells through the firing slits to win

My sahuagin party specifically had a blaster wizard, a healing cleric, and two rangers with aquatic bows. They were mercenaries hired by my bbeg.

[Palanan]

So, I've pretty much decided on the darktentacles as the lurking abomination of the day, since it's a good match for what I had in mind. But a CR of 7 seems a little low, and 67 hp won't get it very far.

Maybe adding some DR and something else could nudge it up to CR 8? Monster design is not my speciality, so if there are any good templates out there I'm game.



EDIT: Just looked at the Mineral Warrior, which I've seen mentioned all over the place but never tracked down until now. So, +3 natural AC and DR 8/adamantine, plus extra hit points, all for the low, low price of +1 CR? :smalleek:

Is that too much for a small, low-magic party?
.

[dungeonnerd]

Aquatic Half-Illithids. Slap the templates on some animals and merfolk, build up to the temple proper (or perhaps caverns underneath) where live and spawn a illithid cult to the Elder Gods of the Deep.

Unusual - check. A shark with face tentacles! (yes, the template reads "humanoid" but the example creature is a beholder so... a wizard did it!)

Leads to an opposing evil force? Check!

A BBEG that can run for a long time - check! Mindflayer/class3/illithid savant X leads to some amazing combinations and flavor - can make him do anything with that PrC, and he can last a long time,becoming a recurring villian if you want. Bonus points if he eats a player and gains abilities from them mid-battle.