Looking for Magical Obstacles for strange dungeon area.

[killem2]

I have an upcoming area that is filled with runes that allow one to teleport. Well, it will teleport them to a predefined rune. I talked about how to build this dungeon in another thread a few months back. Well, sadly my info was lost in a hard drive crash and I have to start over, but most it I remembered. The last part I was looking for was magical effects that surround my small defined rooms or areas the runes are found in.

I have a couple that were easy. Like the entrance to this level of the dungeon leads the party into a room that is surrounded by a Permanent Wall of Fire. Now, that's the kind of thing I'm looking for.

Things, that I want are many magical effect that either is an actual wall, wall-like, or creates an effect that can be sculpted/shaped into a wall and is able to be made permanent. This is suppose to be a maze like area that was created by a powerful magic user that has had many many years to gain exp from adventurers and permanently create his wicked fun house.

The requirements are fairly simple:

1. Must Obscure Vision
2. Must block passage or at least discourage passage.
3. Must be magical.
4. Must loosely fit requirements for permanency spell. It doesn't exactly have to be on the list in the PHB, but just fit the basic parameters.

ECL range is 7-9.

[kabreras]

Most peoples will just ignore a wall of fire.

You can do your maze with walls of force, doesnt obscure vision, but noone see them and the whole room look like it is empty, make thr TP runes invis and that will make your players cry while they try to draw the map themselfs :smallfurious:

[ksbsnowowl]

Have some of the rooms "cross over" each other.

Imagine a hallway with a door on the left wall. There is a long rectangular room extending away from the door (we'll call it west). If you continue north down the hallway just ten feet, the hallway turns to the left (west). Ten feet west of the corner is another door in the south wall of the hallway. It leads into a long rectangular room that heads extends to the south.

The two rooms should be occupying the same space, but they don't. Maybe one is a pocket dimension not unlike a Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion. Maybe one of the rooms is actually on the Ethereal Plane.

Maybe it is just some odd magical effect, and each room actually is on the same plane in the same "space," but things can only leave the room through the door they entered through. The party enters through the first door, seeing a long room with someone just inside the door. They enter the room and the person is surprised (it looks like an adventuring party just walked through the wall). They get in a skirmish and the opponent retreats.... through his doorway, but it just looks like a wall to the PC's...

Someone could be hiding behind the wall in the long back part of the room that doesn't exist for those on the other "side," and attack them at range with impunity... until the PC's figure out the puzzle.

Maybe the PC's kill the man they first came upon. They can pick up and use his sword, but it can't leave the room when the PC's exit through their doorway, because it can't just pass through the wall that exists for the sword. The PC's will have to leave it there, and can only truly obtain it once they find the other entrance to the room.


On a completely different topic, there was a third party adventure written by Monte Cook (Beyond the Veil, by Penumbra Press) that featured a ghost black dragon's ethereal castle that was built of semi-solid acid walls. Touching the wall did something like 2d6 acid damage. Getting pushed into and submerged in the wall (via the dragon ghost's bull rush attempts) dealt something like 10d6 damage. The adventure was for 9th level characters.

Make the objective viewable through such a wall, but they have to deal with the wall (dimension door past it, whatever) to get to their objective.

[Feralventas]

Set up traps that are based around tricking the PC's into trying to disable them.

>Spells contingent on another spell being dispelled.
>Spells put in place seemingly to impede progress, actually placed to prevent escape of harmful materials or creatures.

For example, in a higher level game, I put a wall of force near the bottom of a spiral stair-case with an open passage down the middle. When the players got rid of it, they set off a Tsunami spell at the bottom, intended to either drown, bludgeon, or knock the intruders off the stairs and down to fall in the middle and take additional falling damage. The stair-well was also left is a shoddy state of repair so as to ensure that there would be additional detritus to smack them as they rose and fell.

Alternatively, Wall of Force is simply in front of a room ahead with a vial of some sort of fluid that is producing fog as if dry ice. Removing the WoF soon forces fortitude saves vs the poison flooding into the hall.

In a narrow hallway the temperature rises significantly, and it's almost balmy compared to the normal cool, dark, damp dungeon atmosphere. Ahead is a low-level evocation spell tied to a Rune Ward or Contingency; this should hide the actual contingency, can be anything from Magic Missile to Fireball. The point is that when the spell is dispelled, it sets off the contingency for a Disintigrate spell at the ceiling which releases the pool of lava housed above. You can also give less warning with something like Sand (pinned, suffocated) rocks (same) water (with electrical currants running along the ground for good measure).

[Lightlawbliss]

walls of force that the party has to get past but removing it makes the passage unpassable as well. perfectly solvable and perfectly annoying to a party without a teir 1.

[ksbsnowowl]

There is a spell in Shining South, called ... Stone Trap? ... something like a 6th level Cleric spell. When cast upon a large stone (forget the exact dimensions, but at least 10x10x10 ft.) it float upward and will stay suspended in air until something walks beneath it, at which point it will fall, dealing some amount of damage. The spell specifies that the floating stone can be used as a "cork" over a hole in the ceiling above, and triggering the trap could let something else loose (sand, water, trapped Nyth [Monsters of Faerun], whatever strikes your fancy).

Lots of fun to be had with that spell.

[killem2]

Jesus.

This is some sadistic stuff lol. Part of me really wants to do that. I really like the idea of a completely invisible wall.

Would you suggest putting it over the top? The only true t1 person is a wizard, we have a cleric but he is hardly optimized in any fashion.

The wizard however, though new, has been researching polymorph to great lengths. (or so she says) I imagine she would try and fly.


I originally had this room setup to be a rather large. like 100 inches by 80 inches or so on the battle grid. The rooms with the runes would be surrounded and they would be going to basically blind into places. I was going to have objects that have silence on them in random places to stop people from yelling and trying to detect that way.

the ceiling would be made of a solid fog. and above this fake ceiling would be pillage of ice that are 10x10, and would require constant balance chances.

[Lightlawbliss]

with what you have said, a fun trick to throw in would be the way up being an area of permentant reverse gravity (or mabe one rune activates the reverse gravity and they have to get to it before it times out (for the timed one, some indication the reverse gravity exists or is happening, like a rock going flying, might be a good idea)

[Shining Wrath]

Create a place where jumping is a logical choice, such as a 10' gap.
Have a wall of wind that starts up when someone is 3' from the edge and blows into their face.
Suddenly that 10' jump requires a Jump check of 25 to make.

[Emperor Tippy]

Something real fun is to have the ceiling/floor supported by pillars/walls made out of air/water that has been permanently turned to stone with Polymorph Any Object or the like and then face these "stone" supports in a thin sheet of lead and real stone that has very small holes dotted through it (make them part of the wall design).

These holes mean that line of effect isn't blocked for emanations; such as with Anti Magic Field or an Area Dispel Magic.

The adventurers enter the room and see an obvious magical trap/hazard and when they try and destroy it the real "trap" triggers and the entire ceiling and floor just collapses.

I've made dungeons where any use of an AOE dispel (including Disjunction) or AMF would basically collapse the whole place and bury everyone inside.

[kreenlover]

I'd start with moving walls. so, maybe its moving walls from the minitatures handbook, maybe its something more sinister like the zombie walls from dungeonscape I believe (and make these guys move towards anything alive)

throw gelatinous cubes in as walls, that would also be fun. Just have a room made up of gelatinous cubes stacked on top of each other, or something.

Make there be a 'safe path' through the middle, but just make it an illusion covering a pit.
Make a 'map room' that tells them where everything is. make it wrong.
Make an 'amp room' that permanently deafens them as rock music blasts out their eardrums. To add realism, play music really loudly for the rest of the session, tell them what they need to know by writing it out.
have chained summon monsters. It doesn't matter what it summons, heck it could be bunnies, but have a spell turret of summon monster. and when that spell turret is destroyed, the hole in the ceiling it was plugging is opened. drop stuff
have teleporting monsters harass them, jumping in and out between the walls. then have these monsters trigger traps, then leave
separate the party.
Once the party figures out what the runes do, have one of them just disintegrate whoever touches it. Have the real exit be a door hidden by an illusion of the same type of wall.
Turn them upside down, rightside sideways, and backwards.
Spin the rooms.
Change where the teleport sigils go
make their heads explode.
Roll dperecntile to see where they go each time they hit a rune. have a roll of 100 be something nasty

[ksbsnowowl]

What kind of denizens were you planning to have occupy this dungeon?

I recently flabbergasted my players for most of a session with this set up:
A Blue Slaadi fortress inside a mountain. The rooms were all individual, with no hallways connecting them (originally created by Spellweavers by Passwalling a hallway, then Disintegrating a room; Passwall ends and the room has no exits).

So the PC's get inside it, and explore around a few halls and rooms. They reach a dead end, then come back to where they'd been before, but some of the hallways were missing (the 8 hour duration of a Blue Slaad's at will Passwall SLA had expired). They could no longer get back outside (at least without teleporting).

They eventually figured it out when the Beguiler used True Seeing, and could no longer see the hallways that everyone else in the party could see and use. Then he Charmed one of the Blue Slaadi, and got him to make hallways for them.

Granted, my PC's were gestalt and 14th level. It just depends how much you want to screw with your players.

[killem2]

I really just want to really strain the players minds while they think their way out of this.

I do like the force wall I idea, but that might be pushing it. I think I will continue to use other means of messing around with them. I am going to have the runes be invisible until they are stepped on or stepped off of. and then they will emit light spell for like an hour. Then they will reset to normal.

I don't really want them to be able to map this place out. I just want them to remember what they see, smell, ect.

As far as enemies of the dungeon, there isn't much to start here. The next section they will face two colossal animated objects. (http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i168/ica171/Brandon%20Misc/twinconstructs_zps1909cc5e.png)

[Emperor Tippy]

Make the dungeon redesign its self on the fly. You can place portals every so often that randomly shift every X minutes to dumping you out in another room. Sure the party can disable them but then they are stuck in the particular demiplane that held that part of the dungeon and are kinda screwed. Especially if said demiplane has the Limited Magic trait applied to the various methods of planar travel.

Place (in rooms that are inaccessible to the PC's without extreme effort) traps that produce Ice Assassins of chosen monsters every so often (and perhaps randomly) and also have permanent teleportation circles to different parts of the dungeon. The dungeon has an ever shifting layout that constantly repopulates its self with monsters of various types. Divination only has the reach (at least the kind that can't cross planar boundaries) to tell you about the immediate area, teleporting out to rest up and comeback later is only possible with Wish, every time the party passes through a doorway (which they have to do unless they want to get stuck) they could find themselves stepping into any other "room" in the dungeon.

[ksbsnowowl]

I really just want to really strain the players minds while they think their way out of this.


Just make sure the consequences for failure are not immediately, game endingly fatal. I have recent experience with this issue; it doesn't make the players happy. It doesn't matter that there are hints they should "send in a probe" via a summoned monster or prying eyes or something to gauge results, perhaps from multiple angles, before jumping in whole hog; they won't do it, and they'll get pissed when they die.

Just some friendly advice from one scientist who is used to thinking in hypothesis-testing format. Most people apparently don't view the world this way. Maybe that's why they invented the Darwin Awards...

[killem2]

Just make sure the consequences for failure are not immediately, game endingly fatal. I have recent experience with this issue; it doesn't make the players happy. It doesn't matter that there are hints they should "send in a probe" via a summoned monster or prying eyes or something to gauge results, perhaps from multiple angles, before jumping in whole hog; they won't do it, and they'll get pissed when they die.

Just some friendly advice from one scientist who is used to thinking in hypothesis-testing format. Most people apparently don't view the world this way. Maybe that's why they invented the Darwin Awards...

Yeah, I don't plan on TPK rooms, just dwindling them down. Plus they are extremely cautious.

[XmonkTad]

As to make the place feel like a wicked fun house, don't forget animated objects. "Wizard chess " is an old favorite, but a game where a bowling ball knocks down pins that run away, and in the next room is a bowling ball golem, could work.
As to the wall issue, nothing wrong with paper walls with exploding runes on them. They don't block detect spells, but they certainly discourage cheating.

[killem2]

As to make the place feel like a wicked fun house, don't forget animated objects. "Wizard chess " is an old favorite, but a game where a bowling ball knocks down pins that run away, and in the next room is a bowling ball golem, could work.
As to the wall issue, nothing wrong with paper walls with exploding runes on them. They don't block detect spells, but they certainly discourage cheating.

Oooo. that could be fun for one of the rooms for sure.

Would you have them wall to wall or just in different areas? Won't it destroy part of the wall if not all of it?:smallbiggrin:

[killem2]

I've had some time to look over what I want to do.

The lay out will be pretty much like this:


375ft by 250ft
Will have separate magical effects to act as walls.
The entire area is under the effect of the Amplify spell, rather than having silence spell in effect out side of the rooms.
The runes are invisible, but will appear 10 seconds after either stepped into or stepped off of. It produces light much like a candle but it has 5ft bright 5ft shadow.
The room itself is roughly 200ft tall. There are two layers of magical darkness (cast at highest slot possible) at roughly 50ft in height.
There are Columns of Ice in paths outside of the main areas, that have runes. These are 100ft tall, with 50ft hidden below darkness. (Don't slip and fall :D)
I will be putting a lot of skeletons at the base of the columns and near them to show how others have failed.
Magical Effects in use: Wall of Stone, Wall of Ice, Wall of Coldfire, Wall of Ooze, Wall of Ectoplasm, Wall of Fire, Cloudkill, Stinking Cloud, Paper Walls with Explosive Runes, and Force Walls.
I have 52 runes. (A1, A2, B1, B2 ect).



I do have a question however, can Rogues use trapfinding to discover the invisible runes?

[buttcyst]

I'd say yes if there is a search DC to find it

[killem2]

I'd say yes if there is a search DC to find it

That's my predicament. I can't find any rules that say this is searchable.


haha nevermind! Found it....sort of..

An inanimate object, an unliving creature holding still, or a completely immobile creature is even harder to spot (DC 40).

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialAbilities.htm#invisibility

Found this:

Note: Magic traps such as teleportation circle are hard to detect and disable. A rogue (only) can use the Search skill to find the circle and Disable Device to thwart it. The DC in each case is 25 + spell level, or 34 in the case of teleportation circle.

Which is teleportation circle is basically what these are.

But they are also invisible. Hmm.