A Lich's lair.

[Guinea Anubis]

So I am going to be sending 3 level 10 pcs in to a Lich's Lair. Now these 3 pcs are brand new and I have no idea on what classes they will be playing. I told them to make some new PCs using the point buy system with 36 points, and no restriction on what they could spend there gold on(the amount given for level 10).

The players know that they will be going up aginst this Lich and that he is/was a Dwarf sorcerer that use to work for the king that went a little nuts in his old age and took over a research lab/ workshop/ outpost. They also know that he has been in this place for 300 years and that when he was alive he specialized in making constructs.

Now I am 98% done with the lair but there is alwese room for fine tuning. So I am open to any and all ideas that you might have that could make this Lich's lair more fun :D .

[Rahdjan]

Undead and Constructs? My guess is no one is gonna play the rogue, so throw a whole bunch of nasty traps at them.

[Bobbis]

An undead enemy with construct minions...combat is going to be pretty lame for the rogue; so if you have one make sure to put a few traps to make him feel useful.

Edit: Curses, beaten to the same conclusion!

[Guinea Anubis]

there are traps, I tried to make it so every class could do something usefull but not be required, since I have no idea what they are going to play.

[Ranis]

Give the Lich 5 levels in Dungeon Lord in Dungeonscape; it's extremely appropriate if he hasn't moved from the same place for 300 years.

[reorith]

i second the dungeon lord prc idea

[bosssmiley]

Give the Lich 5 levels in Dungeon Lord in Dungeonscape; it's extremely appropriate if he hasn't moved from the same place for 300 years.

Is that the one with the capstone ability that calls a giant green hand into existence to slap minions around? :smallwink:

Dwarf Lich needs some living minions to allow stabbity rogue goodness ("A day without sneak attack! is like a day without sunshine.")
Duergar acolytes or some of those crazy, crazy Derro perhaps?

Also: 36 point buy? Are you retrofitting "Tomb of Horrors"? :smalleek:

[kellandros]

Why do I have the image of a twisted carnival fun house? Probably WAAY off base from what you intend.

If he specializes in making constructs, you could have a couple of rooms of the failures. Let your mind go wild with the most absurd creature designs.

Also, how about:
- a construct with far more arms than is useful? Assume arrange them radially. Let it carry a weapon or shield in each arm, probably no 2 handed weapons. No flanking bonuses against this guy, and he can make multiple seperate attacks in every surround direction(limit 3 or 4 per person around him).
- animal based constructs? How about a tarantula shaped giant iron golem?
- a large size construct with rocket propelled fists?
- Preprogrammed battles? The constructs have been given specific turn by turn instructions to follow. They know when to move to avoid area effect traps in the chosen room(i.e. on round 4 spikes shoot out of the ground in area A, on round 6 flames envelop area B, etc).

[Woot Spitum]

If someone makes a rogue, make sure they know about Gravestrike, and can have it cast on them.

[Zincorium]

Been watching Battle Bots or a similar show recently, Kellandros?

In any case, the second biggest blow to a character, after the rogue or other precision damage dealer, is any character such as a bard, beguiler, or sorcerer/wizard specializing in mind controlling effects, so you've got even more reason to include at least some living adversaries if anyone is playing a character of that sort.

[its_all_ogre]

he must have some means to repair all these undead so make rooms that are enchanted with negative energy.
this will give any undead in them the fast healing ability and also make resting impossible, no regaining spells here and healing spells heal half normal.
don't make these everywhere or it would get silly, but any rooms with hordes of undead should have these.
the idea of experimental constructs is good too, i like that and will be using it in my own dungeon!

[NecroPaladin]

Also, how about:
- a construct with far more arms than is useful? Assume arrange them radially. Let it carry a weapon or shield in each arm, probably no 2 handed weapons. No flanking bonuses against this guy, and he can make multiple seperate attacks in every surround direction(limit 3 or 4 per person around him).
- animal based constructs? How about a tarantula shaped giant iron golem?
- a large size construct with rocket propelled fists?
- Preprogrammed battles? The constructs have been given specific turn by turn instructions to follow. They know when to move to avoid area effect traps in the chosen room(i.e. on round 4 spikes shoot out of the ground in area A, on round 6 flames envelop area B, etc).

On the undead/construct thing, particularly the strange limbs:

I had the idea of his more powerful minions, rather than just being advanced undead, or constructs alone, are undead with the half-golem template. I once ran a low-level game where the villain was a smarter-than-usual ghast with clay golem arms (as a bit of fluff, his legs were stunted so he used his arms to walk)...That was awesome. He was perhaps one of the few villains I've made that the PCs really got into facing off with.

If the PCs are 10th level, I see no problem in making the above (not necessarily clay, just half-golem) into a minion or miniboss perfectly suited to the setting.

[RandomNPC]

a small white bunny. zombie.

honestly, go for some odd undead, like a moose skeleton, or a um... i duno i've been on a moose kick for a while. but that would be awesome, immagine something skeletal that looks like a moose. im doing that in my next game....

[NecroPaladin]

a small white bunny. zombie.

honestly, go for some odd undead, like a moose skeleton, or a um... i duno i've been on a moose kick for a while. but that would be awesome, immagine something skeletal that looks like a moose. im doing that in my next game....

Dude. Combine our posts. Moose skeleton with clay legs. That would be like five new leagues of pure terror. But if you're not going for laughs, don't put that in your lich's tomb. For obvious reasons.

[mikeejimbo]

They'd laugh until it kicked them.

[PMDM]

I'm not sure how original this is, but try using random magic.

He's crazy, right? Let him have potions and magic items set up all around his little study. When the fight breaks out, let the Lich take advantage of the potions, by shooting them. If the contents burst onto a character, let it play out like the spell. Your PCs will catch on, but they won't know what every potion does. So they'll endup shooting random potions. Mass chaos will ensue.

As a side note, this adds a whole lot of chaos if you didn't pick the right potions to set up.

[Grey Watcher]

a small white bunny. zombie.

honestly, go for some odd undead, like a moose skeleton, or a um... i duno i've been on a moose kick for a while. but that would be awesome, immagine something skeletal that looks like a moose. im doing that in my next game....

A moose once bit my sister...

I'm sorry, I couldn't resist, but on topic, yeah, definitely go with the odd constructs idea. If this guy's whole life was building constructs AND he's gone nuts, that's going to lead to some interesting designs. I'd favor constructs and traps over your standard undead, since it sounds like he got into undeath mainly to avoid proper death. Still, some freaky undead-construct hybrids might be inorder, for added creepiness factor.

[Apoc360]

A Dwarf Ancestor maybe? Could have it pretend to be a statue within the lich's lair, and attack them when they pass by it. Would fit well with the lich being Dwarven, in my opinion anyway. But since it's only CR 6, some tweaking, or something like that might be required.

[Aquillion]

Don't forget: When he learns of the PCs and sees that they're successful against his constructs, he has to become obsessed with killing them, taking them apart, and animating their body parts into components of new, more powerful constructs. Have him go on obsessively about this when they encounter him--admiring the more buff characters and openly considering all the fancy constructs he could put their limbs into, idly wondering if he can keep the mage's brain just functional enough to cast spells inside of a horrific bladed fighter-limbed machine, etc, etc, etc. It'd be even funnier if he didn't really come off as evil or threatening, just as an utterly insane man who views the players as a walking source of spare parts. (And, maybe, a chance to show off his constructs to an audience for once before killing them--that gives you the excuse to have him set up all sorts of bizarre things.)

For living minions, there could be a band of evil humanoids / goblinoids of some sort that live in his area mooching off of him--only, of course, since he'd kill them and use them for spare parts if he had the chance, these goblinoids have perfected the art of disguising themselves as constructs and undead, as well as taking advantage of his scatterbrained eccentricities to avoid being vivisected. If the players figure out what's going on, they could threaten to expose the goblinoids or something like that.

[Guinea Anubis]

well we started this game lastnight. I have a Druid, a Cleric, and a Pally.

One of the first thing these guy came up aginst was a room FULL of zombies that the lich "modified" to make better by replacing there lower intestines with glass balls full of Alk Fire.

Nothing like killing a 1/2 CR monster in one hit to make you feel like a big man untill you see that you are now on fire.

[Vodun]

Theyre using 2 and 1/2 divine casters against a lich with undead? Yeesh.

Now that there are officially no skillmonkeys for the group, Id suggest ranged combat situations, traps or a hazardous enviroment DURING combat, or at least a couple moral situations to keep them on thier toes.

[Hunter_Rose]

I kinda wanted to do this idea for a Minotaur lair, but since this lich likes to make constructs it could work here.

Place teleport traps (if you want to wheedle down the party one by one) or one big teleport trap that zaps the players onto a life sized chess board with the players in the appropriate positions (I would suggest the party leader in the king position). The players are allowed to move as the piece they are phased in by, the king ultimately chooses how the pieces move, and the players are unable to leave the chessboard or their piece paradigme until the game is won in the players favor. Now the players play chess with the opponent (assumably the lich or one of his highest minions) and when they are attacked by the opponent's piece or they attack an opponent's piece they go into single combat with it. Makes for an interesting encounter, but It may take along time to play to it's entirety.

[Aquillion]

I kinda wanted to do this idea for a Minotaur lair, but since this lich likes to make constructs it could work here.

Place teleport traps (if you want to wheedle down the party one by one) or one big teleport trap that zaps the players onto a life sized chess board with the players in the appropriate positions (I would suggest the party leader in the king position). The players are allowed to move as the piece they are phased in by, the king ultimately chooses how the pieces move, and the players are unable to leave the chessboard or their piece paradigme until the game is won in the players favor. Now the players play chess with the opponent (assumably the lich or one of his highest minions) and when they are attacked by the opponent's piece or they attack an opponent's piece they go into single combat with it. Makes for an interesting encounter, but It may take along time to play to it's entirety.I think that would be annoying--it's a bit too much of the NOW THE PARTY WILL DO WHAT I SAY sort of thing. Like, how are the player's movements restricted to their respective piece, and how does the king have control? Is it a mental compulsion, and if so, do they get will saves? Are there traps that go off if you don't obey the rules? Or does the lich just spaz out and start throwing fingers of death at you?

I would suggest doing something like that, but with the following: First, don't teleport them in. Have them arrive in the huge chessboard room to the voice of the lich in the distance telling them the rules and challenging them with his construct pieces. Then, make it clear that the lich is completely insane, and don't force the players to go along. Assume that at most they'll play along a few rounds to see what's up, then say 'screw this' and start blasting. Have the lich complain petulantly that they're not playing by the rules when this happens; then have him pull out plan B (e.g. chessboard is covered with traps he activates, enemy chess pieces go into 'total kill' mode, whatever.) Or you can even just the players brutally slaughter the enemy chess pieces as the constructs continue to try and play the game as if nothing's wrong to add that extra layer of creepiness to the whole thing.

[Hunter_Rose]

The idea was to isolate the player into one on one confrontations with the lich's constructs. The players can move however their pieces are allowed to move on the board, but they cannot leave the board until the game is done. Plus the characters are not isolated so the king can shout orders to the players to give suggestions or the players can just move on their own.

Teleporting the party into place forces the entire party to deal with the trap and locks them into place to complete the challenge of the trap. This is a trap after all, and the players have to use their own wits and skill to get out of it.

[Guinea Anubis]

I like the chess Idea, but I know my players and they would not have fun with it. It is sad really since its such a good idea.

[kellandros]

If chess would be too long/complicated/boring, then how about make them play checkers with land mines? Create little 1 foot tall constructs, that can fire off an explosive blast. Make them fairly well armored from the sides. If someone wants to attack them, it needs to be from above, where the explosion happens.

If they play by the rules(jumping over single ones), the mines are disarmed automatically. If they attempt to cheat(jump over one onto a second one), things go boom in their face. Advantage to checkers is simpler rules, faster rate of play(just assume one little land mine gets to move between each player action). Instead of having to stop and think about moves, players could almost just keep moving normally.

Or could take that Dwarf vs. Troll boardgame from Discworld(showed up mostly in Thud, can't recall the name right off). You have 2 sides, one with numbers the other with power. Your lich will announce that they are going to play a game, and for them to choose which side to play. Then send in a horde of little guys, or some gigantic hulking crushers(DR plus high strength to knock people flying).

It doesn't have to be chess. With a warped enough sense of humor, your lich could take just about anything. How about a puzzle/trap room based on Chutes and Ladders?

[Erom]

Have magnetic traps that switch on and off, and are dangerous to anyone wearing heavy armor. (And have it disarm anyone weilding metal weapons.) Then pit them against an iron golem thats buffed beyond normally beatable, so they have to figure out the pattern that the magnets activate in, and use them to trap the iron golem, or use him to smash down a door or something.

[Dant]

Or could take that Dwarf vs. Troll boardgame from Discworld(showed up mostly in Thud, can't recall the name right off). You have 2 sides, one with numbers the other with power. Your lich will announce that they are going to play a game, and for them to choose which side to play. Then send in a horde of little guys, or some gigantic hulking crushers(DR plus high strength to knock people flying).


Are you referring to the proper name, or the one that gets used the most? If it's the proper name, I'm way to lazy to look it up, being something like 30 letters long. It's in the Postmaster book I believe.You already used the other name, it being Thud. :smalltongue:

[magnar]

Hey, I like that chutes (snakes) and ladders thing. Maybe simulate dice rolling by making them do that carnival game with the big hammer, the damage roll being how far they move. Snakes can bite and reduce str (lower results, and it eventually becomes perpetual 1s, meaning you have always hit the snakes/chutes again!)
Also, I like the iron golem idea, even if it is a bit LoZ-ish.
And finally, for cruel humor, try the room with a tall ceiling that has a grate in it. Sinister wisps of (poisonous?) gas float from the above. When they walk in, the doors lock. A timer on the wall counts down. as it gets close to zero, the hissing of (zomg its poisonous! we're all gonna die!) gass gets louder. A button near the door resets the timer. When it reaches 0, the doors swing open.