Memorable Battlefields

[Eorran]

One of the maxims of 4e is position matters. Share some examples of fights where terrain made a fight really memorable, or times when it should have but didn't.

My examples:

Had one encounter right beside a bridge that crossed a canyon with a swift-flowing stream at the bottom. PCs were 8th level, fighting an oni mage and a few toughs (Ogres / Bugbears). The PCs cut the bridge to split the enemies, and put half the enemies in the creek through forced movement.

Second example:
I (as DM) dropped a portcullis and split a large group of level 2 PCs, half inside & half outside, while they fought hyenas. The Wizard of that group hasn't been in more danger since, and they're level 22 now.

One that didn't work out as well:
I DM'd an encounter between 2 level 12 PCs and 4 ogres. The fight was in a geyser field, but the random geysers only hit an enemy once, and none of the PCs. The one who was hit took minimal damage and was blinded for one round, but was too far back to make much of a difference to the fight.

[Dimers]

One PbP fight I was just in had the party start out with all the PCs spread far apart from each other on platforms up in trees, each with a low-level grunt to fight. We'd have to make Athletics or Acrobatics checks to climb to the next tier of platforms (and we'd take OAs for doing so if we didn't kill the grunts first). On that tier we could be closer to each other, but only with good planning, and we'd pick up more grunts to fight. Then we'd have to go across difficult-terrain bridges to get to the single platform on the third tier, where awaited the much-higher-level boss who was raining movement-restrictive death down on us the whole time.

Right now, the spreadsheet battle map (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AiQVkOA2NPRAdDZjQ3IwNkpEOW8tLXNJUWlUM3V4Y 0E#gid=4) is still visible. The larger, darker areas are the starting platforms; top tier is the one in the center. The goal was actually just to get three PCs up on the top-tier platform simultaneously, but we ended up knocking out most of the enemies because the OAs were devastating us.

Main thing learned from this scenario? Leaders aren't much good when their parties are 10+ squares away from them. Two of the five of us are leaders.

[Unseenmal]

I DM a group right now of 5 2nd lvl players (2 leaders, 1 defender, 1 striker and 1 controller) . I had them fighting a group of 4 2nd lvl kobold mages. The group would normally have wiped the floor with them but the kobold mages used an ambush to start the fight and obscuring fog traps.

The kobolds could see in the fog as normal but the players couldn't see beyond 10'. The kobolds used sniper and hit&run tactics to their advantage.

It turned a 2 round trouncing into a 10 round fight for survival. The players loved it. They were releaved beyond measure when they killed the final kobold and the fog dropped

[Surrealistik]

I ran an encounter with some similarity to that fog one.

PCs fell into a pit used for the disposal of Drow slaves and captives. Unfortunately for them, it happened to be unhallowed and swarming with undead.

Nearly impenetrable magical darkness (light sources cast dim illumination out to 5 feet, darkvision could see out to 10 feet as though the spaces were dimly lit). The entire area counted as Defiled Ground fantastic terrain. Semi-animate bone piles (difficult terrain) scattered throughout the cavern would grab at PCs on or adjacent and tear them apart with ongoing while randomly spawning grabby skeletal minions. Standard wraiths would hit and run, phasing through walls to strike at the PCs before fading back into the darkness, while other wraith types would jar them with hindering auras and force them into the bonepiles. A blighted underground spring served as a source of regeneration for bloodied undead (and bonuses to Defiled Ground reanimation saving throws), dealing necrotic damage to PCs foolish enough to enter.

Simple Religion or Arcana skill challenges made on/adjacent to a bonepile would disable it for the duration of the encounter. For each wraith killed, a random bonepile would permanently go dormant and the magical darkness would weaken, increasing the range of illumination and Darkvision by 5 feet, ending entirely when the last wraith had been slain.

[Dimers]

I ran an encounter with some similarity to that fog one ...

Trippy. I especially like how darkvision isn't perfect but is still better than nothing.

[Tridax]

My players once helped in a siege of a Persian-themed bastion. As a result, the fighter dueled the governor in an epic 1x1 while the others jumped around the rooftops protecting the fighter from the governor's assassins ala parkour.

Or when the party hijacked a convoy with a political prisoner attempting to kill him. They failed, though half of the convoy burned down. Many adventurers died that day, helping the party.

[Angel Bob]

Hoo boy, here we go.

Ever since the session that featured this skirmish, the encounter has been hailed as "the drow encounter" by the group and uniformly adored. The best part is that the DM didn't intend for all the interesting terrain features to happen at all.

Long story short, we entered a room full of drow gathered around an alchemist's table. The party wizard, who was also the leader, tried to negotiate (that is, Intimidate) the drow into allying with us against their dark master. (It was an Evil campaign.) Negotiations quickly turned sour, and he threatened to thunderwave the table if they didn't agree, loosing their alchemical potions. The drow called his bluff... turned out he wasn't bluffing.

The DM had to think up some magical effects on the spot, but to his credit, he came up with some pretty awesome ones. Firstly, one potion began melting a hole through the table. Another released a shroud of darkness, cloaking the whole room. A third released a noxious gas, which we all had to make saving throws against until it dissipated. Finally, one potion created a marauding lightning bolt that blasted 1d6 squares in a random direction each round, dealing damage to those it passed through.

The rest of the encounter was simply amazing. Admittedly, it wasn't entirely the terrain features' doing; rather, the PCs pulled some awesome stunts, and it was epic. (For example, the blackguard ran forth in the darkness and swung his axe randomly. Not only did he manage to strike one of the drow, but he scored a critical hit, which had been boosted by his feats and weapon. The drow took so much damage that the DM ruled his arm had been lopped off.) But the lightning bolt definitely helped, especially since my sorcerer was at one point able to toss an opponent into its path, frying him.

[georgie_leech]

Obligatory mention of Tucker's Kobolds, (http://www.tuckerskobolds.com/) who transcend any Edition Barriers to mess with all PC's everywhere.

On my end, I once ran an encounter in a sewer-themed dungeon that took place in a large room with pipes and walkways everywhere. As the sewer was rather old, the pipes were quite byzantine and difficult to navigate in a straight line... unless you took advantage of Athletics checks to jump, or Acrobatics Checks to swing on dangling chains, or the like. The Defenders appreciated having choke points to defend with, the Monk loved being able to really use his mobility powers and skills to dart around the battle field, and the Wizard adored being able to toss enemies into the water flow beneath, keeping them temporarily out of the fight.

[Surrealistik]

For those interested I have the old write up of my wraith encounter here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sD2J5huHXb6wK9IIHVUCWjWuctjzzGdjo98Lc5BQbbM/edit

[BlckDv]

I had a blast using props to create a very atypical battle map for a set piece fight. The idea was a powerful force was pulling in energy from other planes and warping reality.

I had 2x2 inch squares from the craft store in several colors, 1x1 inch craft mirror tiles, some glued back to back to make two sided mirrors that would free stand, and 3D terrain including Dwarven Forge pieces and some Warhammer stuff.

The battlefield was constructed with care to make a three story structure which had all walls properly present in the tiles, sections where the 2nd and 3rd story were exposed and concealed from the lower floors, and the 2x2 tiles and some single sided mirror tiles scattered in among the floor, with the free standing mirrors carefully placed throughout.

The mirrors allowed for line of sight as actually created, making for the ability to target powers along paths that were unexpected, mirror floor tiles could teleport you to step out of any free standing mirror you could see, and each 2x2 tile counted as one 5'x5' space, but was adjacent to all of the 1x1 normal squares it touched, representing the warping of space in the area. Each color of 2x2 floor tiles also had special effects (Black 1/2'd healing for Living, gave +20 to healing for Undead, Yellow added 2 to each Fire or Lightning damage die, Green Slowed you until eont if you ended movement there, but gave you 2 point cover from the vines that burst out of it, etc.)

Party had to fight their way past nasty phasing undead, a Dragonborn Asmodeus Paladin (recurring villain), and an Undead dragon (not a dracolich but they thought it was) to the only Red 2x2 tile which was a portal to a pocket dimension fortress of a lich solo with lots of traps and more teleporty special effects.