Encounter Design Help

[glitterbaby]

So the party I'm DMing is a group of five completely new players. I'm a pretty seasoned player but a relatively new DM and I've run into a few issues in making challenging and interesting encounters for the players. It hasn't been a big problem yet but I thought I'd just ask for a little advice with creating fun and interesting encounters before it became a problem.

The current party (level 5):

Krynnish Minotaur Barbarian
Krynnish Minotaur Druid
Elf Dread Necromancer
Elf Dread Necromancer
Crane Hengeyokai Scout/Swift Hunter


Yeah, completely new players. The Barbarian melees, the Druid likes to Shillelagh and melee, the Swift Hunter likes to shoot arrows. The two Dread Necros were looking for cool 'necromancy' feats at character creation and convinced everyone in the party to take Tomb-Tainted Soul so they act as Healbots while their undead do melee. The Druid wanted a dinosaur for his animal companion so I showed him a few dinosaur options and he liked the Fleshraker the most. Then the Barbarian and the archer were saying that they wanted animals too so they asked if it was possible and I showed them the Wild Cohort feat so there's another Fleshraker and a Bison as well.

So everyone in the party has a minion and a massive HP pool that they refresh in between every fight with the Dread Necros Charnel Touch (except the animals, they weren't allowed to take tomb-tainted soul). The party likes to be pretty evil and so they don't care if their animals die, they're more than ok spending the 24 meditation time to get one back.

I'm having trouble figuring out how to design an encounter with the sheer number of creatures the party has. If an enemy is melee he gets piled by the 6 capable meleers and shot with a now pretty deadly arrow from the archer but if an enemy is ranged or a flyer then really only the druid and the archer feel like they can do anything and that's never fun.

So I don't have any specific questions really, just looking for some general encounter design advice for a party with a massive number of combatants, a lot of damage, and a refillable HP pool.

[ExLibrisMortis]

Well, this might be one of the few situations where fireball is an appropriate response. The dread necromancers have poor reflex saves and their health isn't the highest, being elves with a d6 hit die. Trap them in a narrow passage, fire away. Other classics, like web and stinking cloud, affect multiple targets, provide cover or concealment, and deny actions.

If you don't want to be totally sadistic about it, put the fireballers in places that can be approached with total cover/concealment, provided you climb, fly or hide. Make the PCs work for it a little.

[Troacctid]

It's not just about the enemies, it's also about the environment. Flood the room with acid, have geysers of scalding steam erupt from the ground, place magical pylons around the room that emit bursts of sonic energy, drop a fog cloud on the party, place the enemies on floating platforms outside of melee reach surrounded by wind walls, etc. Then make the enemies immune to the environment (energy resistance, blindsight, whatever) and you've got a fight that's more challenging AND more cinematic. Plus, you give players the chance to feel really smart by sundering the pylons or bull rushing enemies off the platforms or whatnot.

[Gwaednerth]

Look into monsters with gaze attacks and auras, then set an encounter in a room with the same radius as that effect.

[Lerondiel]

On top of the previous suggestions, mix in some encounters on a bridge, in a tunnel only 10ft wide and watch them shove the animals to the back to get in there...

As well as the vulnerability to a good fireball, with the exception of the casters they're a sitting duck for a good illusion/enchantment. Incite Riot/Friend to Foe/etc


A big illusioned spiked pit trap creates havoc. Sure, only the first person/creature falls in for the damage, and they shoot a roped arrow into the waiting plank on the opposite side to drag it over to cross, but how to you get the dinosaurs to walk a narrow plank? And how do they react when several drow guards ambush them while they're trying to do it? :)

[NichG]

In terms of encounter design, your goal shouldn't be to counter their schticks or to win, but rather to give every participant in the encounter meaningful choices to make.

So given the diversity of actors on the field, I feel like the primary thing you need is a diversity of opponents. That is to say, avoid single-big-enemy type situations, because then the only real choice is 'dogpile the enemy'. But what if you have an narrow open space ringed with lots of cover, where there are a few fliers who are harrying the party with 4-square piddly damage AoE attacks dropped from above which have some kind of movement debuff/rough terrain generation (thereby wearing down or pinning clusters who tried to gang up on single enemies), supporting a few enemy tank types with AoO shenanigans, who are protecting a battery of enemy ranged units that are directly targeting/focus-firing the PCs and ignoring the creature support?

In that encounter, the party's ranged characters can try to take out the enemy cannons and ignore the fliers, leaving their minions to get ensnared, or they can go after the fliers. The minions can be cannon fodder or decoys for the enemy ranged attackers, or can try to push through and get to the cannons (which they'd be able to take out), and so on.

Essentially, try to keep the choices at any given point from being too obvious. And once the choices are obvious and the battle is winding down, don't be afraid to say '...and you clean up the strays' or have a load-bearing component to the enemy side so that the battle doesn't turn into a slog.

[glitterbaby]

Thanks everyone for the help. This should prove quite useful in going forward with designing my encounters.