Oko and Qailee
2013-06-08, 11:46 PM
So, I started a thing with some friends where we play "interesting" encounters. Basically the idea is to make the fight have some special quality to it. I wanted to share them (in case you ever want to try them) and also ask if you guys had any cool encounter ideas you'd like to share.
Flying Bull Rush Encounter
Description: The idea of this encounter is that there would be a room filled with pillars (spaced 5-15 feet apart) that are 15 feet tall. The party would stand on these pillars because below would be AcidFire that burns them if they fall. The enemies would be dedicated BullRushers.
Details when I ran this encounter:
Enemies: 6 Griffons (CR 4), Weapon Focus (Bite) replaced with Improved Bull Rush. Griffons were given 1 more HD of HP. AcidFire dealt 1d6firedmg and 1d4aciddmg per round.
Party at the time: Four level 9's (I think), A rouge, a Warblade, a barbarian and a sorcerer.
Balance discussion: When the party attempted this, only one player died, at the very last round of the very last gryphon, who only killed him by rolling a crit. The Rouge was really poorly geared/stated. I would make this encounter again for lower level characters, especially if the party has a cleric or something to trivialize the AcidFire Dmg.
Player Opinion and My opinion: Forgot to get feedback on this. But, given that the only death was borderline and due to a lucky roll, I'd say it was pretty effective. Griffons kept players down, but not 100% of the time. One of my favorite ideas TBH.
The Fire Elemental Maze
Description: Party begins in the center of a Maze that spawns Large sized Fire Elementals. They have to figure out the Fire Elementals don't stop spawning and then get to the end of the maze.
Details when I ran this Encounter:
Enemies: Large Sized Fire Elementals (CR 9). The maze was fairly large (I forget exact size, but ~60x60?) with six spawn points pre-set for the Elementals. The Elemental max was capped at 6, whenever 1 or more was dead one Fire Elemental/round would spawn at a maze location.
Party at the time: Was 3 level 10's. One was a Duskblade, another was a Barbarian/Ashworm Dragoon, the other was an indestructible camel.
Balance Discussion: Mixed feelings, no one came really close to dying at all. However, the Duskblade and the Barbarian both hit less than half HP. The camel was literally not capable of being hurt, even when it was 4 fire elementals pounding on him. I would try this encounter at the exact same level if spellcasters were present.
Player opinion and My opinion: Well received. Feedback I heard was positive. There was a bit of tension when I began to fill the maze with lava after one of the players found an exit (TBH the lava never presented any danger)
Star Elves on the Rooftops
Description: Party was in a section of city that had a few fires on the ground/buildings. On the ground level was a Zezir, at rooftop level was two star elf sorcerers. Party began at ground level.
Details when I ran this encounter:
Enemies: One Zezir (CR6) and two Star elf sorcerers (lvl 3). Zezir would spread flammable Goo on the party and Star elves would ignite it.
Party at the Time: All 5th level. Rouge, Sorcerer, Cleric, and a Warlock.
Balance Discussion: I think this was a good idea, just not executed perfectly. The Star elves on the rooftops gave the Rouge a very "rouge" thing to do, but they we're too week to be much of a threat. Additionally the Cleric casting protection trivialized the fight by the end of it. However the Rouge and Sorc did hit less than half HP at one point. One of the Star Elves was so pathetic on rolls, he tripped off a building, taking half his hp in dmg, casted a spell... and only hit the Zezir... and then died to the Sorcerers cat. If I were to rerun the encounter I would add one level to each star elf sorcerer.
Player Opinion and My Opinion: Positive. Rouge felt like he was a Rouge, Sorcerer enjoyed Nuking, Cleric felt useful, Warlock did DMGes. A bit too easy though, but not every fight can be a boss fight. Makes for a good fight that will use up some of the party resources.
Enter the Zelekhut
Description: Party fought a Zelekhut in a large room. On one side of the room was a "sea" of fire and the other a "sea" of fire that did ice damage. In each "sea" was a crystal, these crystals either healed the Zelekhut or enchanted his attacks.
Details when I ran this encounter:
Enemies: One Zelekhut (CR9) and two Crystals (AC10 HP10). Each turn of the Zelekhut the crystals could either heal the Zelekhut 2hp(not sure if exact number) or the Zelekhut could enchant each attack he made that round with either 1d6 Fire or Ice for that attack. '
Party at the Time: I forget, but I think they were all level 7 (or 6, i forget which tbh). Warlock, Warblade, Cleric.
Balance Discussion: The goal of the fight was to make a choice between ignoring the Zelekhut for a few rounds and tanking same damage to hit the crystals, or to be dumb. Fight was very long and drawn out due to the tanky nature of the Zelekhut + Crystals. Even after removing the crystals the fight took a long while simply because of the Zelekhuts healings, meaning that focusing the crystals wasn't meaningful at all. If I could change it I would increase the healing of the crystals so that their total healing is greater than normal Zelekhut healing and then remove the Zelekhuts innate healing.
My and player opinon: Fairly negative. Focusing the crystals was meaningless, the fight wasn't even hard, just very long and drawn out.
Dreamscape Room
Description: Ok this is going to be a lot. The party started on the ledge of a balcony of a room shaped like a bird. Enemies were below, 4 Tieflings and 2 "clerics" who were demons in disguise. The Party got a surprise round before a large Dodecahedron (located below Balcony, HP50 AC20) pulled everyone into a Dreamscape (no save unless Dodecahedron is destroyed). The party Strength Drained a Tiefling, Dropped another Tiefling to Negative, and insta-killed one Demon and took out 2/3 of the other Demons HP.
The Dreamscape Room itself:The Dreamscape room had multiple rules. First off it was a square-room, although instead of walls a fine mist surrounded the room. Party members who were on the bottom floor of the previous room began on the floor of the Dreamscape, those who were higher up (The Balcony) began on the "Ceiling", seemingly unaffected by gravity (so they were standing upside down), the "ceiling" appeared to be "infinitely far away and yet right next to the floor." Finally, everyones vision was tinted blue and giant numbers were floating around (could be red or green).
The Rules of the Dreamscape:
1) There is no max height of the room. A grappling flyer could potentially grab someone who does not fly and go up for eternity before dropping them. The ceiling/floor (whichever you were flying towards) would just keep seeming farther away.
2) In order to swap being on the floor/ceiling a player must succeed on a DC5 Will Save (to will themselves to the other layer) followed by a DC20 Jump check.
3) Biggest change! Any "physical/energy/whatever" attack hits someone other than the intended target based on the numbers shown. Basically two lists are made at the start of combat, one of players and one of enemies, the list can be randomly ordered or by initiative. Only the most powerful enemy is aware of the rules ahead of time.
3a) Green numbers mean you hit allies, red numbers mean to hit enemies.
Basically whoever was hit was determined like so: Who was the intended
target, go to whoever is on the same number spot on the other list if the
numbers are red, then go down the numerical value on that list.
3b) Certain effects do not hit different targets. Ex. In my fight effects that
don't require you to hit a target always effect the intended target. So
Sorrowsorn Demon's (MM3) whispers of loss, Aura of Loss, and the Spell
Weird all hit their intended targets. All other attacks had a description of
"you see your spear disappear into whiteness and reappear behind person X
instead, who gets stabbed." For AOE's like fireball, think about how the
flames travel as they can spread, if you don't want to deal with this
headache just say they don't spread after teleporting.
3c) AC/DR/SR/etc always uses the stats of the person you hit.
3d) You are always treated as flanking when your attacks teleport
3e) Partial Concealment, or any effect that occurs before an enemy hits
you, occurs for Intended targets. (Ex. Lets say I want to hit targetA and
swing at him, my attack teleports and hits targetB instead, who has
concealment, his concealment is ignored because I don't need to see
targetA to hit him.)
3f) If a party member indirectly starts hitting another party member via
multiple attacks, they must succeed on a DC20 - 5 * #of attacks made to
realize they're hitting an ally (and then choose to stop).
These rules are impossible to all figure out!!!
TBH, they're somewhat supposed to be. My party is essentially 4 damage dealers, I can never make an encounter risky to them unless it's just outright unfair, this makes them much less likely to instagib my enemies. This fight also makes certain things more/less valuable.
Details when I ran this Encounter:
Enemies: 4 Lesser Tiefling Rouge/Lashers (~lvl 7). 1 Beblith (CR10), and 1 Sorrowsorn Demon (CR17)
Party at the Time: All lvl 12. Barbarian/AshwurmDragoon, Indestructible Camel, Sorcerer, and a Duskblade
Balancing Discussion: This was a bossfight. By the end of the fight the Ashworm Dragoon had died (failed Will save vs Weird), the Sorcerer was Confused, the Duskblade Dazed, his Imp familiar Died, and the Indestructible Samel actually took damage. I think the difficulty in the exact instance was perfectly fine for a boss fight, the Barbarian really only died because he never got anything to improve his will save. The Beblith was one shot in the surprise round. The Tieflings actually did ok damage (they were under-equipped though, only had a masterwork dagger whip and a belt of battle each). The Sorrowsorn demon managed to last one more round that the rest of his allies. This kind of fight, IMO, changes a lot of whats good. CC spells and Damage become a lot less valuable since the enemies (other than the sorrowsorn, and even he's nothing to write home about) do so little. In contrast Defensive Buffing becomes absurdly important and Healing actually becomes good (since, other than your allies, you will always heal more than the enemies deal). Basically the best approach to this fight is to be more defensive and less mindless. Heal up damage/buff, then do your own damage. This encounter is good vs parties of nothing but damage dealers, simply because they kill each other. This fight would have been impossible for my party (I think) if it wasn't for the fact that I gave them a surprise round (the barbarian dropped the Sorrowsorn to 109ish of his 297HP in the surprise round...).
Recommended changes: None for the mechanics of the fight. I would not ever give the enemy side a buffer/healer because the enemy has the advantage of knowing the rules. I would also swap the Sorrowsorn Demon for something much weaker (~CR12) if I am not providing the party with a surprise round.
Player Opinions: Haven't gotten much feedback. I think it was a good encounter and probably can become trivial with a good cleric. The barbarian player mentioned it was too hard and the Camel player thought it was awesome.
So, what do you guys think. Got any cool ideas? The goal is to make encounters have a unique challenge to them other than "hit them with our best spell/dmg". For example, the Zezir fight made the rouge want to go hit the star elves for massive dmg. The maze made my players think about splitting up vs staying together.
Flying Bull Rush Encounter
Description: The idea of this encounter is that there would be a room filled with pillars (spaced 5-15 feet apart) that are 15 feet tall. The party would stand on these pillars because below would be AcidFire that burns them if they fall. The enemies would be dedicated BullRushers.
Details when I ran this encounter:
Enemies: 6 Griffons (CR 4), Weapon Focus (Bite) replaced with Improved Bull Rush. Griffons were given 1 more HD of HP. AcidFire dealt 1d6firedmg and 1d4aciddmg per round.
Party at the time: Four level 9's (I think), A rouge, a Warblade, a barbarian and a sorcerer.
Balance discussion: When the party attempted this, only one player died, at the very last round of the very last gryphon, who only killed him by rolling a crit. The Rouge was really poorly geared/stated. I would make this encounter again for lower level characters, especially if the party has a cleric or something to trivialize the AcidFire Dmg.
Player Opinion and My opinion: Forgot to get feedback on this. But, given that the only death was borderline and due to a lucky roll, I'd say it was pretty effective. Griffons kept players down, but not 100% of the time. One of my favorite ideas TBH.
The Fire Elemental Maze
Description: Party begins in the center of a Maze that spawns Large sized Fire Elementals. They have to figure out the Fire Elementals don't stop spawning and then get to the end of the maze.
Details when I ran this Encounter:
Enemies: Large Sized Fire Elementals (CR 9). The maze was fairly large (I forget exact size, but ~60x60?) with six spawn points pre-set for the Elementals. The Elemental max was capped at 6, whenever 1 or more was dead one Fire Elemental/round would spawn at a maze location.
Party at the time: Was 3 level 10's. One was a Duskblade, another was a Barbarian/Ashworm Dragoon, the other was an indestructible camel.
Balance Discussion: Mixed feelings, no one came really close to dying at all. However, the Duskblade and the Barbarian both hit less than half HP. The camel was literally not capable of being hurt, even when it was 4 fire elementals pounding on him. I would try this encounter at the exact same level if spellcasters were present.
Player opinion and My opinion: Well received. Feedback I heard was positive. There was a bit of tension when I began to fill the maze with lava after one of the players found an exit (TBH the lava never presented any danger)
Star Elves on the Rooftops
Description: Party was in a section of city that had a few fires on the ground/buildings. On the ground level was a Zezir, at rooftop level was two star elf sorcerers. Party began at ground level.
Details when I ran this encounter:
Enemies: One Zezir (CR6) and two Star elf sorcerers (lvl 3). Zezir would spread flammable Goo on the party and Star elves would ignite it.
Party at the Time: All 5th level. Rouge, Sorcerer, Cleric, and a Warlock.
Balance Discussion: I think this was a good idea, just not executed perfectly. The Star elves on the rooftops gave the Rouge a very "rouge" thing to do, but they we're too week to be much of a threat. Additionally the Cleric casting protection trivialized the fight by the end of it. However the Rouge and Sorc did hit less than half HP at one point. One of the Star Elves was so pathetic on rolls, he tripped off a building, taking half his hp in dmg, casted a spell... and only hit the Zezir... and then died to the Sorcerers cat. If I were to rerun the encounter I would add one level to each star elf sorcerer.
Player Opinion and My Opinion: Positive. Rouge felt like he was a Rouge, Sorcerer enjoyed Nuking, Cleric felt useful, Warlock did DMGes. A bit too easy though, but not every fight can be a boss fight. Makes for a good fight that will use up some of the party resources.
Enter the Zelekhut
Description: Party fought a Zelekhut in a large room. On one side of the room was a "sea" of fire and the other a "sea" of fire that did ice damage. In each "sea" was a crystal, these crystals either healed the Zelekhut or enchanted his attacks.
Details when I ran this encounter:
Enemies: One Zelekhut (CR9) and two Crystals (AC10 HP10). Each turn of the Zelekhut the crystals could either heal the Zelekhut 2hp(not sure if exact number) or the Zelekhut could enchant each attack he made that round with either 1d6 Fire or Ice for that attack. '
Party at the Time: I forget, but I think they were all level 7 (or 6, i forget which tbh). Warlock, Warblade, Cleric.
Balance Discussion: The goal of the fight was to make a choice between ignoring the Zelekhut for a few rounds and tanking same damage to hit the crystals, or to be dumb. Fight was very long and drawn out due to the tanky nature of the Zelekhut + Crystals. Even after removing the crystals the fight took a long while simply because of the Zelekhuts healings, meaning that focusing the crystals wasn't meaningful at all. If I could change it I would increase the healing of the crystals so that their total healing is greater than normal Zelekhut healing and then remove the Zelekhuts innate healing.
My and player opinon: Fairly negative. Focusing the crystals was meaningless, the fight wasn't even hard, just very long and drawn out.
Dreamscape Room
Description: Ok this is going to be a lot. The party started on the ledge of a balcony of a room shaped like a bird. Enemies were below, 4 Tieflings and 2 "clerics" who were demons in disguise. The Party got a surprise round before a large Dodecahedron (located below Balcony, HP50 AC20) pulled everyone into a Dreamscape (no save unless Dodecahedron is destroyed). The party Strength Drained a Tiefling, Dropped another Tiefling to Negative, and insta-killed one Demon and took out 2/3 of the other Demons HP.
The Dreamscape Room itself:The Dreamscape room had multiple rules. First off it was a square-room, although instead of walls a fine mist surrounded the room. Party members who were on the bottom floor of the previous room began on the floor of the Dreamscape, those who were higher up (The Balcony) began on the "Ceiling", seemingly unaffected by gravity (so they were standing upside down), the "ceiling" appeared to be "infinitely far away and yet right next to the floor." Finally, everyones vision was tinted blue and giant numbers were floating around (could be red or green).
The Rules of the Dreamscape:
1) There is no max height of the room. A grappling flyer could potentially grab someone who does not fly and go up for eternity before dropping them. The ceiling/floor (whichever you were flying towards) would just keep seeming farther away.
2) In order to swap being on the floor/ceiling a player must succeed on a DC5 Will Save (to will themselves to the other layer) followed by a DC20 Jump check.
3) Biggest change! Any "physical/energy/whatever" attack hits someone other than the intended target based on the numbers shown. Basically two lists are made at the start of combat, one of players and one of enemies, the list can be randomly ordered or by initiative. Only the most powerful enemy is aware of the rules ahead of time.
3a) Green numbers mean you hit allies, red numbers mean to hit enemies.
Basically whoever was hit was determined like so: Who was the intended
target, go to whoever is on the same number spot on the other list if the
numbers are red, then go down the numerical value on that list.
3b) Certain effects do not hit different targets. Ex. In my fight effects that
don't require you to hit a target always effect the intended target. So
Sorrowsorn Demon's (MM3) whispers of loss, Aura of Loss, and the Spell
Weird all hit their intended targets. All other attacks had a description of
"you see your spear disappear into whiteness and reappear behind person X
instead, who gets stabbed." For AOE's like fireball, think about how the
flames travel as they can spread, if you don't want to deal with this
headache just say they don't spread after teleporting.
3c) AC/DR/SR/etc always uses the stats of the person you hit.
3d) You are always treated as flanking when your attacks teleport
3e) Partial Concealment, or any effect that occurs before an enemy hits
you, occurs for Intended targets. (Ex. Lets say I want to hit targetA and
swing at him, my attack teleports and hits targetB instead, who has
concealment, his concealment is ignored because I don't need to see
targetA to hit him.)
3f) If a party member indirectly starts hitting another party member via
multiple attacks, they must succeed on a DC20 - 5 * #of attacks made to
realize they're hitting an ally (and then choose to stop).
These rules are impossible to all figure out!!!
TBH, they're somewhat supposed to be. My party is essentially 4 damage dealers, I can never make an encounter risky to them unless it's just outright unfair, this makes them much less likely to instagib my enemies. This fight also makes certain things more/less valuable.
Details when I ran this Encounter:
Enemies: 4 Lesser Tiefling Rouge/Lashers (~lvl 7). 1 Beblith (CR10), and 1 Sorrowsorn Demon (CR17)
Party at the Time: All lvl 12. Barbarian/AshwurmDragoon, Indestructible Camel, Sorcerer, and a Duskblade
Balancing Discussion: This was a bossfight. By the end of the fight the Ashworm Dragoon had died (failed Will save vs Weird), the Sorcerer was Confused, the Duskblade Dazed, his Imp familiar Died, and the Indestructible Samel actually took damage. I think the difficulty in the exact instance was perfectly fine for a boss fight, the Barbarian really only died because he never got anything to improve his will save. The Beblith was one shot in the surprise round. The Tieflings actually did ok damage (they were under-equipped though, only had a masterwork dagger whip and a belt of battle each). The Sorrowsorn demon managed to last one more round that the rest of his allies. This kind of fight, IMO, changes a lot of whats good. CC spells and Damage become a lot less valuable since the enemies (other than the sorrowsorn, and even he's nothing to write home about) do so little. In contrast Defensive Buffing becomes absurdly important and Healing actually becomes good (since, other than your allies, you will always heal more than the enemies deal). Basically the best approach to this fight is to be more defensive and less mindless. Heal up damage/buff, then do your own damage. This encounter is good vs parties of nothing but damage dealers, simply because they kill each other. This fight would have been impossible for my party (I think) if it wasn't for the fact that I gave them a surprise round (the barbarian dropped the Sorrowsorn to 109ish of his 297HP in the surprise round...).
Recommended changes: None for the mechanics of the fight. I would not ever give the enemy side a buffer/healer because the enemy has the advantage of knowing the rules. I would also swap the Sorrowsorn Demon for something much weaker (~CR12) if I am not providing the party with a surprise round.
Player Opinions: Haven't gotten much feedback. I think it was a good encounter and probably can become trivial with a good cleric. The barbarian player mentioned it was too hard and the Camel player thought it was awesome.
So, what do you guys think. Got any cool ideas? The goal is to make encounters have a unique challenge to them other than "hit them with our best spell/dmg". For example, the Zezir fight made the rouge want to go hit the star elves for massive dmg. The maze made my players think about splitting up vs staying together.