Interesting Encounters for One-Shot Dungeon Crawl

[Elricaltovilla]

So in about 5 days I'll be running a one shot dungeon crawl to introduce my RL gaming friends to the Path of War material. I'm making their characters for them, and have them all settled, but now I'm scrambling to think of good encounters to pit them against in a dungeon crawl.

There are 3 characters, each 6th level with 25 pt buy and max hp per level:

1. Dervish Defender Warder- Dwarf. I basically copied this guy's TWF fighter into PoW, he's a very simple player who doesn't like things getting complicated. Just wants to hit stuff and get drunk.

2. Ranged Warlord- Probably could have optimized her more. She normally plays a druid, but really only uses it to blast despite being built as a summoner.

3. A Warpriest using 2 warpaths for Golden Lion and Silver Crane. Our regular DM, and the second best (he disagrees) optimizer in our group. He likes to play healers and I'm trusting him to keep the other two alive, which is normally my job.

I don't expect the game to be really serious, actually I expect them to spend the whole time trying to derail it, but I need about 5 decent encounters for 6th level characters that can show off how much fun Path of War is. Any suggestions?

[Ssalarn]

Use a deep, quiet pool, occupied by a giant octopus. Classic encounter, perfect for the party. Maybe put a narrow, railless bridge across said lake just to see if they'll use it. Tuck a dozen bat swarms up in the ceiling in case they decide to avoid the lake entirely and shimmy across the ceiling.

After they've crossed the lake, give them an easy challenge: a locked and warded adamantine door guarded by a pair of mythic cockatrices (CR 4 each).

When they open the door, within is a frigid stretch of tunnel twisting down into the depths. Ice coats the walls and floors and cold weather hazards apply. As they descend into the depths, scatter a few Freezing Flows along their path; these icy oozes should be almost indistinguishable to the naked eye unless they're looking closely.

As the tunnel nears its end the frigid cold is melted away by the earth's heat and the party reaches their destination- a Divine Guardian, protecting a treasure older than time itself, perched upon a plateau. The gaping pit between the party and the guardian is crossed by several narrow ledges; the pit itself descends nearly 100 feet, and at the bottom is the red-hot glow of bubbling magma. As the party approaches the Guardian, they discover that he is not the one guarding the ancient treasure; a pair of statues guarding the entrance of the bridge suddenly spring to life, transforming into a pair of powerful dragonnes.