killing in the name of... a new campaign

[LordErebus12]

So my party gave me the permission to kill them off last night, so we can start a dark sun campaign. I want to do it in style. We're currently in an underground tomb. The party has desecrated this place; pissing on gravestones, graverobbing, that sort of stuff.

They have one room left. A 8square wide, 10square long room lies at the end of the hallway. One way in, the way they came. The wall will slide over the doorway and lock them in.

We have the following builds.
Blue-goblin ninja3 (shuriken expert)
Trox fighter3/barbarian1/warder2 (tank/dps specialist)
Human alchemist5 (cold and heartless)
Gnome sorcerer4 (undead bloodline)/gunslinger1
Kasatha monk6 (uses a falacata with flurry of blows)
Half-orc druid6 with alligator snapping turtle

Undead have been a big problem so far.

[Callin]

Floating Incorporeal Undead. Every round tiles drop into a pit of swirling negative energy. Make it look like the party can almost win but then have time run out as the last of the tiles fall away and they are dropped into the swirling miasma of negative energy.

[atemu1234]

Should this be meaningful or funny?

[Blackhawk748]

Floating Incorporeal Undead. Every round tiles drop into a pit of swirling negative energy. Make it look like the party can almost win but then have time run out as the last of the tiles fall away and they are dropped into the swirling miasma of negative energy.

This sounds like a lot of fun actually. Also id have an obvious Boss style incorporeal undead

[LordErebus12]

This sounds like a lot of fun actually. Also id have an obvious Boss style incorporeal undead

I agree, but what to use...?
Clearly a custom monster would be cool option, but we could modify a preexisting creature.

[Blackhawk748]

I agree, but what to use...?

A Wraith with class levels? Or maybe a Ghost?

[LordErebus12]

There are also a wealth of incorporeal undead to pick from. I like the idea of using the floating beheaded creature from bestiary 4, in addition to the main undead.

[Bad Wolf]

Kobolds. Or Half-Fiend Half-Celestial Nixies. You'd be surprised how many times I've seen that happen.

[LordErebus12]

Kobolds. Or Half-Fiend Half-Celestial Nixies. You'd be surprised how many times I've seen that happen.

Stacking templates is bad, imo...

[atemu1234]

Stacking templates is bad, imo...

Stacking templates is bad. Wonderfully, wonderfully bad.

[Kol Korran]

The ghost of Inigo Montoya!

"My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my guardians, desecrated my tomb, prepare to die!"
(Negative energy slash/ stab)
"My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my guardians, desecrated my tomb, prepare to die!"
(Negative energy slash/ stab)

... Stop saying that! :smalltongue:

(Just replace the name with someone the party should know and would feel is a worthy adversary, or a funny one, and go to town. Remember about Rejuvenation, INSTANT rejuvenation.)

[Blackhawk748]

Wait a minute, there was a crazy build posted awhile back about some undead Kobold that used a metric crap ton of spiders...... like millions of them. I think his name was Baragryx or something like that. He was at a fairly absurd OP level, but you could power him down to a Necropoltian Venerable Dragonwraught Hungry Prey (i think thats what the template is called) Kobold Sorcerer who specializes in Summon Swarm and has multiple swarms with him. I think they where some sort of ethereal spiders.....

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

A Greater Shadow, using spring attack to come out of the wall/floor/ceiling, hit someone, and dart back into a solid obstacle. It waits a few rounds and does it again. Then waits a few rounds and does it again. Once it kills someone and they become a shadow, both seem to go away, but they're really just hiding in the walls and stalking the party until they have another encounter, then they both focus down another party member. Repeat as often as necessary.

[LordErebus12]

Brutal... not gonna lie.

I like the shadow idea, but I want them to at least have a chance...

[Barbarian Horde]

Let them clear the tomb. At the end... respond "Oh thats right.." while outside under the blue sky "roll a reflex save." No matter what happens tell everyone but 1 person they didnt pass the DC "Your character was crushed by a large rock from above" Now rinse and repeat till the party gets killed off slowly.

If they want to know whats happening a titan is sniping them with rocks that weigh 4,000lbs. Explain how even=miles away with a nat 20 he successfully Hit you

If not pull a wizard of Oz but make it real.

[TypoNinja]

Let them clear the tomb. At the end... respond "Oh thats right.." while outside under the blue sky "roll a reflex save." No matter what happens tell everyone but 1 person they didnt pass the DC "Your character was crushed by a large rock from above" Now rinse and repeat till the party gets killed off slowly.

If they want to know whats happening a titan is sniping them with rocks that weigh 4,000lbs. Explain how even=miles away with a nat 20 he successfully Hit you



Death From Above has been and will always be my favorite tactic. Even when impractical, its just satisfying.

For any fans of Battletech/Mechwarrior the pinnacle of DFA was reached when I saw a guy turn an orbital combat drop into a DFA attack. That's right, he DFA'd from orbit.


Really though, I've always found that you don't have to go out of your way to get PC's killed, I usually have to work hard to not kill PCs. Half a dose of basic tactics can readily cause a TPW in many cases.

[daremetoidareyo]

The door locks behind them. The room is much larger than it appears. Secretly roll everyone's disbelief check. Don't tell them whether or not they pass. Whoever got the highest score but still failed gets a tap on the shoulder at the last minute...

The room must have extra dimensional space from what you described. Then proceed to describe what looks like a mashup of all the inferior "heavens" that the PC's characters would want to enjoy, depending on their in-character psychology. But have it happening behind the a throne. You know, stuff like, Naughty devil kobold girls looking over their luxurious lifted pillow bed, a hoard of gold and an armory, a ring of dudes gambling over a match of fisticuffs, a dark necromantic tome resting on slip of old paper giving the anti-life equation, whatever floats your PCs boats.

On the throne is death himself, all decked out in grim reaper style. And he has (1 X # of PCs) tests that the PCs need to succeed and he'll grant them a single wish, fulfilled to the utmost extent of their intentions. No monkey paw hijinx. Honest. If they don't compete, they die. If they compete, at least they have a chance of escaping this ancient doorway to the netherworld alive. Then begin a contest for the group to compete in against death, 1 or 2 PCs at a time.


examples: One on One combat for the fighter against a hulked out minataur gladiator for the barbarian.
Dueling alchemists: given 5 minutes, a giant laboratory, and an impressive array of chemicals and plants, and a total of 30 words that the other PCs can use to help, the alchemist must derive alchemical concoctions to get through these 6 obstacles. 1) dissolve a tiny ooze. 2.) cut through super thick hemp rope. 3.) neutralize an acid elemental 4.) silence an undead bard and his living horn player, 5.) Neutralize the asp poison that bit the PC 6.) remove a rusty sword from a stone. Lots of knowledge and craft checks.

Battle of finesse. Get a sudden attack in against something that is very hard to get flatfooted.

Defeat in one on one or 2 on 2 combat your exact anti-clone(s).

Get through a crazy obstacle course that you stat up and I don't.

Then when things are just starting to finish up with the challenge against death himself, have the guy who got the highest disbelief save come to, realizing that this isn't real.



He cant see anything at all, it is difficult to breath, and something is on his head, like a bag or something but he can feel a slight suction coming from right in front of his face. His face is also wet. When he frees himself (maybe make him succeed on a strength or escape artist if you want to make it scary), only to find the rest of the group's heads inside of these weird plant tentacles with suctioning old timey record player horn shaped appendages covering them up to the shoulders, sucking something out of them while they hallucinate. Their arms hang limply down to their sides.

The PC can see the tentacles "swallowing" ... something while they are attached to this creature (now make a big swallowy sound in your throat, really try to throw that sound). The tentacles all attach to the body mass of what looks like a huge evil plant/fungus thing. It is growing out of a well in the center of the 8X10 room, a weird purple light shines upwards from behind the plant. There is a chalky yellow mist in the air (it's the illusion pollen).

This "awakened" PC, must figure a way to break the enchantment on his allies (cast an appropriate spell (dispel magic, cure x, circle of protection, gust of wind whathaveyou), or succeed on a strength check to extract them or knock them out and wake them up... etc.)

After more than half of the group is freed, have another tentacle pop up, and "sniff" with a big obvious sniffing sound, from some strange pad with long slits that act as "nostils" at the end of the tentacle. The opponent now knows that the PCs are awake. Roll initiatives.

[Apply a weird plant or fungus template to an appropriate HD for a hydra]

This combat should be fun as there will be a scramble to free the rest of the team before they have to deal with the weird plant thing. There are chains hanging from the 4 corners of the room, they have a heavy sized link and hand down to about 4 foot off the ground. It looked like they connected to a center place. There is no light source other than the puplish glow coming from a liquid beneath the weird plant monster.

There are the shreds of what once looked like a cage on the far side of the room. Deep gauges are cut into the walls of the chamber. A strange moss, with little orange fruiting bodies, grows from where blood would have splattered if something was raking the walls trying to dig its way away from danger. Once they kill it the monster (or die...) and look down into the slightly luminescent glowing purple ooze in the well from which it was extruding, they see little reflections of part of the halucinagenic illusion that they shared.

The hydra thing itself has it's vegetative matter decay over the course of a few minutes leaving only a skeleton covered is raspy onion papery husks of it's old planty flesh. The spine of the skeleton has ruptures from which it looks like something exploded out, from the center of its nervous system. Inside the hollow spinal column is the same weird purple fluid from the well.

Touching the purple stuff has a few effects:
first few minutes: PC can hear all of the other PC's thoughts. (if this happens during the bossfight, explain it as a strange feeling after 2 or 3 rounds, where they can "hear" their fellow PCs thoughts.) After a bit, the PC starts to feel dizzy. When another PC touches a pc who touched the liquid, They instantly bond like they have a shared mind. (If this happens during the fight, so be it.) It also feels incredibly good to share their minds.

To other PCs, it looks like the bodies of the two are beginning to meld together. Tell those players that they may trade their entire class levels between each other. But the levels stay with the associated class and begin with earliest class abilities first. If I give you an achemist level, you get alchemist level 1, and I lose my latest alchemist level.

The bonded folks desperately want more people to join the hive-mind. When new PCs join the hive mind, their bodies begin to merge together and their masses and volumes get added together. Then the two PCs control a single Character of class level (and distribution of class levels)=both PCs. (i.e.goblin ninja 3/half orc druid 6/ HD of alligator snapping turtle: Just add all the BAB and saves together) After 5 minutes of touching the purple liquid, the original PC can hear the thoughts of the plants around him, then the animals, and then people above ground, and they are in grave danger, something large is attacking. A voice, a voice that can only faintly be heard in the heads of those who touched the liquid is imploring them all not to leave the room. But there are also thousands of psychic impressions of people in fear. If any of the PCs have family/friends nearby, they feel their fear.


There is a big monster rampaging around outside, and if the PCs want to, they can all touch the goo and merge together like a voltron to go fight it. Use one character as a base and add 1/3 of each other character's ability scores to theirs. Add all the BABs and saves together. Add all the feats together. Let them use 1 spell per round as a free action. And have this level 30 titan monstrosity of voltron...ified PCs fight a great wyrm pseudonatural gold dragon of legend or something big and fun to smash around like a godzilla fight, maybe put a villain the PCs didn't get a chance to kill in charge of it. Make sure to include smashing buildings/bridges/aquaducts/ carriages/boats and other stuff.

If none of the PC's weapons can size with them, they will have to uproot some trees and finally use some of those improvised weapon rules for large sized objects. The voltron PC will be a 36 foot tall ninja3 (shuriken expert)/fighter3/barbarian1/warder2 (tank/dps specialist)/alchemist5/sorcerer4 (undead bloodline w/gnome SLAs)/gunslinger1/monk6 (uses a falacata with flurry of blows)/Half-orc druid6/ with alligator snapping turtle HD. Don't forget the size increase for strength and constitution. Your AC is going to be atrocious. Go save the day for the entire country. HECK YEAH!

And remember that one lone voice that said not to leave the room? After the fight with the monstrous ex machina, the PC titan dissolves. Leaking the weird symbiotic psychic ooze onto the surface of the world. End the campaign with the PCs laughing and getting a breather after a fun smash bang battle. in a ring having defeated the BBEG. And just have one of them notice an ant merge with a blade of grass. END CAMPAIGN!


I just made that all up and I hope it made sense, because it was fun to type but not to proofread.

[LordErebus12]

Awesome post.
thank you.
purely genius

[daremetoidareyo]

Awesome post.
thank you.
purely genius

aww shucks. Thanks.

[sonofzeal]

If you're still taking suggestions...



Whisperer in the Darkness
Advanced Gibbering Mouther, refluffed as a "truth elemental", spewing an unending stream of Things Man Was Not Meant To Know from its thousand mouths. PCs who failed a Will save vs Gibbering (and they could do so voluntarily if they wished) gain a small clue of something of significance for the campaign or world at large.

Size/Type: Large Aberration
Hit Dice: 8d8+64 (100 hp)
Initiative: +1
Speed: 20 ft. (2 squares), swim 30 ft.
Armor Class: 22 (+1 Dex, +12 natural, -1 size), touch 10, flat-footed 21
Base Attack/Grapple: +6/+15
Attack: Bite +11 melee (1d2 +5) or spittle +6 ranged touch (1d6 acid plus blindness)
Full Attack: 6 bite +11 melee (1d2 +5) or spittle +6 ranged touch (1d6 acid plus blindness)
Space/Reach: 10 ft./10 ft.
Special Attacks: Gibbering, spittle, improved grab, blood drain, swallow whole, ground manipulation
Special Qualities: Amorphous, damage reduction 5/bludgeoning, darkvision 60 ft.
Saves: Fort +10, Ref +3, Will +7
Abilities: Str 20, Dex 12, Con 26, Int 3, Wis 12, Cha 16
Feats: Ability Focus: Gibbering, Ability Focus: Spitty, Improved Natural Armor.
Challenge Rating: 7

Gibbering: Will DC 19

Spittle: Fort DC 24



Result: Large size makes Grapple via Improved Grab extremely dangerous. Gibbering's DC has gone up by 6 over the span of 2 CRs, making it far more dangerous and highly effective at creating panic and disorder in the crucial beginning rounds. Spittle's DC has gone up by 6 over the span of 2 CRs, making it a crippling and reliable free action Save Or Suck against one person every turn. Damage has gone up by a factor of five, and accuracy has gained much ground too. HP have more than doubled.


I've thrown this thing against two different parties, both ECL 7. Using Amorphous and Ground Manipulation, it can trigger the encounter in melee range. Both parties has massive difficulty against the Confusion, and neither could do enough damage or put it out of the fight before it had swallowed one, put another in critical, and blinded a third. Both parties lost members, and were forced into a scattered retreat.

[LordErebus12]

im taking suggestions until thursday night
nice suggestion

[Vhaidara]

The door locks behind them. The room is much larger than it appears. Secretly roll everyone's disbelief check. Don't tell them whether or not they pass. Whoever got the highest score but still failed gets a tap on the shoulder at the last minute...

The room must have extra dimensional space from what you described. Then proceed to describe what looks like a mashup of all the inferior "heavens" that the PC's characters would want to enjoy, depending on their in-character psychology. But have it happening behind the a throne. You know, stuff like, Naughty devil kobold girls looking over their luxurious lifted pillow bed, a hoard of gold and an armory, a ring of dudes gambling over a match of fisticuffs, a dark necromantic tome resting on slip of old paper giving the anti-life equation, whatever floats your PCs boats.

On the throne is death himself, all decked out in grim reaper style. And he has (1 X # of PCs) tests that the PCs need to succeed and he'll grant them a single wish, fulfilled to the utmost extent of their intentions. No monkey paw hijinx. Honest. If they don't compete, they die. If they compete, at least they have a chance of escaping this ancient doorway to the netherworld alive. Then begin a contest for the group to compete in against death, 1 or 2 PCs at a time.


examples: One on One combat for the fighter against a hulked out minataur gladiator for the barbarian.
Dueling alchemists: given 5 minutes, a giant laboratory, and an impressive array of chemicals and plants, and a total of 30 words that the other PCs can use to help, the alchemist must derive alchemical concoctions to get through these 6 obstacles. 1) dissolve a tiny ooze. 2.) cut through super thick hemp rope. 3.) neutralize an acid elemental 4.) silence an undead bard and his living horn player, 5.) Neutralize the asp poison that bit the PC 6.) remove a rusty sword from a stone. Lots of knowledge and craft checks.

Battle of finesse. Get a sudden attack in against something that is very hard to get flatfooted.

Defeat in one on one or 2 on 2 combat your exact anti-clone(s).

Get through a crazy obstacle course that you stat up and I don't.

Then when things are just starting to finish up with the challenge against death himself, have the guy who got the highest disbelief save come to, realizing that this isn't real.



He cant see anything at all, it is difficult to breath, and something is on his head, like a bag or something but he can feel a slight suction coming from right in front of his face. His face is also wet. When he frees himself (maybe make him succeed on a strength or escape artist if you want to make it scary), only to find the rest of the group's heads inside of these weird plant tentacles with suctioning old timey record player horn shaped appendages covering them up to the shoulders, sucking something out of them while they hallucinate. Their arms hang limply down to their sides.

The PC can see the tentacles "swallowing" ... something while they are attached to this creature (now make a big swallowy sound in your throat, really try to throw that sound). The tentacles all attach to the body mass of what looks like a huge evil plant/fungus thing. It is growing out of a well in the center of the 8X10 room, a weird purple light shines upwards from behind the plant. There is a chalky yellow mist in the air (it's the illusion pollen).

This "awakened" PC, must figure a way to break the enchantment on his allies (cast an appropriate spell (dispel magic, cure x, circle of protection, gust of wind whathaveyou), or succeed on a strength check to extract them or knock them out and wake them up... etc.)

After more than half of the group is freed, have another tentacle pop up, and "sniff" with a big obvious sniffing sound, from some strange pad with long slits that act as "nostils" at the end of the tentacle. The opponent now knows that the PCs are awake. Roll initiatives.

[Apply a weird plant or fungus template to an appropriate HD for a hydra]

This combat should be fun as there will be a scramble to free the rest of the team before they have to deal with the weird plant thing. There are chains hanging from the 4 corners of the room, they have a heavy sized link and hand down to about 4 foot off the ground. It looked like they connected to a center place. There is no light source other than the puplish glow coming from a liquid beneath the weird plant monster.

There are the shreds of what once looked like a cage on the far side of the room. Deep gauges are cut into the walls of the chamber. A strange moss, with little orange fruiting bodies, grows from where blood would have splattered if something was raking the walls trying to dig its way away from danger. Once they kill it the monster (or die...) and look down into the slightly luminescent glowing purple ooze in the well from which it was extruding, they see little reflections of part of the halucinagenic illusion that they shared.

The hydra thing itself has it's vegetative matter decay over the course of a few minutes leaving only a skeleton covered is raspy onion papery husks of it's old planty flesh. The spine of the skeleton has ruptures from which it looks like something exploded out, from the center of its nervous system. Inside the hollow spinal column is the same weird purple fluid from the well.

Touching the purple stuff has a few effects:
first few minutes: PC can hear all of the other PC's thoughts. (if this happens during the bossfight, explain it as a strange feeling after 2 or 3 rounds, where they can "hear" their fellow PCs thoughts.) After a bit, the PC starts to feel dizzy. When another PC touches a pc who touched the liquid, They instantly bond like they have a shared mind. (If this happens during the fight, so be it.) It also feels incredibly good to share their minds.

To other PCs, it looks like the bodies of the two are beginning to meld together. Tell those players that they may trade their entire class levels between each other. But the levels stay with the associated class and begin with earliest class abilities first. If I give you an achemist level, you get alchemist level 1, and I lose my latest alchemist level.

The bonded folks desperately want more people to join the hive-mind. When new PCs join the hive mind, their bodies begin to merge together and their masses and volumes get added together. Then the two PCs control a single Character of class level (and distribution of class levels)=both PCs. (i.e.goblin ninja 3/half orc druid 6/ HD of alligator snapping turtle: Just add all the BAB and saves together) After 5 minutes of touching the purple liquid, the original PC can hear the thoughts of the plants around him, then the animals, and then people above ground, and they are in grave danger, something large is attacking. A voice, a voice that can only faintly be heard in the heads of those who touched the liquid is imploring them all not to leave the room. But there are also thousands of psychic impressions of people in fear. If any of the PCs have family/friends nearby, they feel their fear.


There is a big monster rampaging around outside, and if the PCs want to, they can all touch the goo and merge together like a voltron to go fight it. Use one character as a base and add 1/3 of each other character's ability scores to theirs. Add all the BABs and saves together. Add all the feats together. Let them use 1 spell per round as a free action. And have this level 30 titan monstrosity of voltron...ified PCs fight a great wyrm pseudonatural gold dragon of legend or something big and fun to smash around like a godzilla fight, maybe put a villain the PCs didn't get a chance to kill in charge of it. Make sure to include smashing buildings/bridges/aquaducts/ carriages/boats and other stuff.

If none of the PC's weapons can size with them, they will have to uproot some trees and finally use some of those improvised weapon rules for large sized objects. The voltron PC will be a 36 foot tall ninja3 (shuriken expert)/fighter3/barbarian1/warder2 (tank/dps specialist)/alchemist5/sorcerer4 (undead bloodline w/gnome SLAs)/gunslinger1/monk6 (uses a falacata with flurry of blows)/Half-orc druid6/ with alligator snapping turtle HD. Don't forget the size increase for strength and constitution. Your AC is going to be atrocious. Go save the day for the entire country. HECK YEAH!

And remember that one lone voice that said not to leave the room? After the fight with the monstrous ex machina, the PC titan dissolves. Leaking the weird symbiotic psychic ooze onto the surface of the world. End the campaign with the PCs laughing and getting a breather after a fun smash bang battle. in a ring having defeated the BBEG. And just have one of them notice an ant merge with a blade of grass. END CAMPAIGN!


I just made that all up and I hope it made sense, because it was fun to type but not to proofread.

You sir have earned my respect as a writer. This is genius on so many levels.