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genderlich
2013-05-27, 12:32 PM
Hey all. I'm planning a Pathfinder campaign at the moment and I'm doing well with the plot, but not so well with combat. In particular, there's a dungeon that's the tower of a very paranoid and creative lich, and I want to give it some really interesting battles, puzzles, traps, or other encounters. So, I come to you - what are the most interesting and fun encounters you've either run, come up with, or played in? I'm looking for extreme terrain features, changing environments, unique mixes of enemies, and challenging puzzles that stay interesting. In other words, make the players use creative thinking and tactics instead of just bashing some monsters.

For example, I had an idea for a room divided into a grid of 10x10 squares that randomly changed elevation, along with some highly agile creatures that could just jump from platform to platform and skirmish freely. Maybe throw a couple traps in there too, and perhaps the platforms could slam into the ceiling with players on them.. I can't figure out how to make it easy to run, though; it seems far too complicated t@o be practical in a real game.

Bulhakov
2013-05-27, 03:48 PM
- Golems/constructs nearly immune to damage that can be deactivated through a long security code - the problem half the code is on the golems in fine print, the second half is in the next room (that someone needs to break into). Bonus: the golems can be reprogrammed to assist the players, but only for a few rooms, then the passage upwards/downwards will be too small for them.

- A corridor with a laser-like force field that cuts in half anything that passes through it (i.e. it detects how large an object is and cuts roughly in the middle, so you can stick a finger through it and nothings happens until you try to step through, but throw a pebble or fire an arrow and it will be sliced immediately). The players should discover that it has a half second recharge time, so it's possible to jump through right after a small object is sliced.

- Rust monster on a crystal chain. The most feared creature by heroes with magic weapons and armor.

Some creatively evil tricks:

- Mirror maze filled with adventurer statues and snake motifs (it can be filled with minor traps only, but the players will be paranoid about encountering a medusa).

- Three powerful creatures that stalk the corridors... with numbers 1, 2 and 4 painted on their leashes.

AttilaTheGeek
2013-05-27, 05:27 PM
You have a cube, 6x6x6 squares or to taste. Unfold it and make it a mat (that looks like this (http://www.math.uiowa.edu/~goodman/algebrabook.dir/2dgraphics.dir/cube.gif)), then have the adventurers do battle along its outside.

Bonus: have them fight on the inside.

Jay R
2013-05-27, 08:32 PM
You have a cube, 6x6x6 squares or to taste. Unfold it and make it a mat (that looks like this (http://www.math.uiowa.edu/~goodman/algebrabook.dir/2dgraphics.dir/cube.gif)), then have the adventurers do battle along its outside.

Bonus: have them fight on the inside.

Decades ago (Original D&D) I had a dungeon that was all that remained of the remains of the Castle of the Mathemagician - a mad wizard from centuries ago. Five of the levels were the equivalent map for the five basic dice.

neonchameleon
2013-05-27, 08:49 PM
One that springs to mind was very simple. The PCs were trying to scare off a bunch of raiders - and were using the latrine as a pit trap. Plus forced movement powers from all of them. I think four out of six bandits went in head first at different times, and one of the PCs.

Doesn't have to be much. Merely something to interact with. (The torture chamber was another favourite with people on both sides being pushed and locked in cages, and even the Iron Maiden).

As for how to run what you're suggesting, use coloured squares on the map. Turn 1 the blue squares trigger. Turn 2 the red, turn 3 the green. Turn 4 it's back to blue. Gotta keep moving. And if you're good you can work those opportunity attacks. In fact anything where you gotta keep moving works pretty well. Think Indiana Jones style giant balls chasing them.

Angel Bob
2013-05-27, 09:02 PM
The encounter that my group still praises as the most enjoyable encounter of our career stemmed from a confrontation with several drow grouped around an alchemist's table. The party wizard threatened that if the drow didn't acquiesce to our demands, he'd thunderwave the table, shattering all of the potions. The drow didn't back down, and neither did he...

The DM quickly ad-libbed a few magical effects. 1, a cloud of darkness was released, blinding all the PCs. 2, a magical fire began to sizzle through the table. 3, noxious gases began to fill the chamber. However, the most intriguing was effect #4: an animate lightning bolt began to snake around the chamber, moving 6 squares in an entirely random direction each round.

The utter chaos that ensued has kept us talking about it for years since.

yougi
2013-05-28, 12:33 PM
I have a few:

- Any Encounter Trap from Dungeonscape, for which I support giving a set amount of time to your players for their rounds (I gave 10 seconds) so they feel the fact that the thing is dangerous and won't let them think calmly and discuss how to disable it.

- One of them (adapted from Whispers of a Vampire Blade) had some players on a Lightning Coach (Train from Eberron), searching for the Vampire they had to kidnap, and another following them on his horse. They were attacked by a Chimera-riding Blackguard, and three hippogriffs rid by 2 Orcs each: one Barbarian who went into the Coach, and one Ranger who fired into it from the mount. The party split in two, and those in the Coach had to deal with the Vampire trying to escape and lots and lots of innocents being in the middle of things.

- I did an encounter where as the PCs got into the room, the middle of the room erupted in a Wall of Fire (actually not the spell, just a mechanical effect, and I asked them to write on a piece of paper if they were dodging left or right. On each side, a large fire elemental appeared, and a flying wizard was shooting fireballs at them from up high.

- The Chess grid is an interesting one: when you enter the room, you're automatically assigned a chess piece depending on where you are in the room. Whenever you move, if you don't do it as the chess piece would, a bolt of lightning comes down on you from the ceiling. Same if your try to avoid the floor (fly, spiderclimb, etc...). Now, add to that electricity-resistant construct on the other side who have been programmed to respect those constraint, yet can still drop these limitations when the PCs base their plans on "oh, he only walks in L-shaped patterns".

- The PCs enter a huge room with a high ledge which can be reached from stairs on the other side of the room. On the ledge are a dozen low-level Warlocks who eldritch blast you to death (archers also work). On the floor are enemies with reach who try to keep you from going up.

- A room filled with statues, where there are two Grimlock with class levels, and one medusa who takes cover from behind the statues and fires at them. Make sure the room is dark and long enough that the PCs don't know it's a medusa, and when they charge with their light source, well, funny things happen.

- I had a Harpy Warlock in a room with deeper darkness cast on half of the room. The Warlock had the ability to see in magical darkness, and could function just fine. In the room where also three Ogres with a Bull Rush specialisation. The floor of the room was filled with various traps, mainly pits, and those who were enchanted by the Harpy's song would walk towards her and fall straight into the pit. Ogres were there to help the PCs fall into the pits. Making the pits more than 50' deep means that the PCs probably don't have enough rope to get out on their own.

- Water Naga in a large underground lake, so it can take cover from under the water. She was specialized in illusions, so it was funny.

LokiRagnarok
2013-06-01, 06:56 PM
For example, I had an idea for a room divided into a grid of 10x10 squares that randomly changed elevation, along with some highly agile creatures that could just jump from platform to platform and skirmish freely. Maybe throw a couple traps in there too, and perhaps the platforms could slam into the ceiling with players on them.. I can't figure out how to make it easy to run, though; it seems far too complicated t@o be practical in a real game.

1. Have different distinct elevation levels.
2. At the start of each player's turn, make a roll to determine which level of elevation "their" column is on. So if they roll a six, it's now on the sixth level, regardless of the previous level.

Alternatively:
Roll a random number. That's by how much the column goes up or down.
Roll a d2. If you roll 1, it goes up, otherwise down.
---
Actually, I think neonchameleon's idea is better, but I wanted to share what I got anyway.

Even more alternatively, program something like Conway's game of Life (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway%27s_Game_of_Life).