Making animal encounters interesting?(pathfinder)

[Togath]

So my party is likely to find themselves goign after a pack of diseased feral dogs, led by a worg...
Does anyone have ideas for making the encounters more interesting?
I'm currently planning for a pack of a about 2-4 small dogs, 2-3 big dogs, and a worg, all carrying ghoul fever. Spread out over 2-3 encounters.

I'll be upping the stats a bit(since the PCs are a 5 person party and level 2), but figured I could ask here for ideas on tactics they could use, or other things that might make it more interesting for my party(no ranged attackers, other than one character with reach from a spear).

Any advice for using low-ish level undead (topping out around cr 4) in an area with a lot of corridors would also be welcome(for those familiar with it, I'm running the first adventure of Carrion Crown, with a few minor edits[the diseased dogs subplot, and the piper now used birds, mainly], and want to try making the prison more interesting).
Reach weapons for skeletons were one idea I had, but would have trouble fitting lore-wise(the undead are mainly prisoners who died in a fire). Maybe if they were stolen from the guards during the escape attempt that led to their death? Or long improvised objects. Brooms? Long iron bars?

[Dayaz]

Considering that the entire party is most likely going to spend the whole fight diseased and prone due to trips, I doubt the encounter needs to be better.

[Togath]

The disease is more a fluff thing.
The town has clerics able to cure it, and the incubation time is long.

Tripping is a potential thing I can use, though I'd hoped to come up with a few more tricks to vary the encounters(especially since, while the dogs are normal intelligence, they are being led by a worg).
Ambushes maybe? Are there any feats that could prove fun for the dogs or the worg to use?(the one that lets you attack after a trip might be fun. Is there anything that helps make ambushes or flanking more effective?)

[Metahuman1]

If you have members of the party that aren't built for it and don't have light weapons, having one or two of the dogs use Grappling could throw them a curve ball.

Lead them into a canyon with some bits of fur and smells of excrement and the like (Stone floor to minimize the "where are the footprints?" factor." and then drop some decent sized rocks for a couple of D6's of Fall damage and an opening charge form the high ground (+3 to hit and +2 to damage per attack that round.), the Worg was smart enough to set a trap.


Or draw them into a cave were it get's too wet for torches and takes too long to use light/dancing lights with out seriously stressing there daily spells per day at that level, so they wind up having to fight totally in the dark. Against much better listen and hide and move silently modifiers + Scent ability. (And if any of them have it, Darkvision.)


Have some of them be rabid as well as Ghoul Fever, maybe have a smaller one do a kamikaze run at them and bit a couple of members in a sort of testing encounter so that some of them will have had it kick in and be hampered by the time the actual fights start?




I think the feat name for the extra attack on a trip is improved trip. add Knockdown if you want to be able to hit them, trip them and hit them again. Improved grab is good for the grapple suggestion, as you hit them and initiate a grapple, not one or the other. Oh, and Sun School, move through everyone and attack. That could be a nasty surprise for one or two of the dogs to have.





As for the undead, slings fashioned form belts and bits of sack or clothing and whatever rocks are around, combined with difficult terrain (loose gravel, lot's of sharp bits of broken glass or metal perhaps.) and cover for the Undead (Big rocks, repurposed thick oak or hard pine doors or tables.). Reach weapons can be simply long Iron Bar's that once comprised cell doors and are as tall or taller then a tall man, and have a sharp point at one end. And maybe a bit of rust and carrying a disease, but it's heavy grade Iron, so not likely to be sundered easily still.

That gives you ranged attacks and damage, a defensible position to use that from, and reach weapons for when the party finally does start getting close enough to do something as an added sticking point. For a level 2 party, that should be enough to give them a run all by itself. Heck, might even inflict casualty's if your not careful.

[Garktz]

Rewatch every scene from the jurassic park movies with raptors in them, refluff, profit.

I love tue scene in the 3? movie, where the raptors are hunting people in that tall grass, they just run and can only see the grass being crushed towards them, but cant really see the raptors.

You could use that same scene, have the cross a large plain with tall grass that prevents direct vision but makes them know that something is going after them.

[Togath]

Farms(primarily grains) and heavy forest abound in the area, so various forms of ambush could work well.
So far a lot of potentially interesting ideas.:smallsmile: Thank you all.
The feedback on the skeletons is also useful.

As for the worg leader... Maybe a level or two of unchained monk? Stunning fist might be an interesting tool for a "beast" to pull out, and they do have decent wisdom even without a stat boost.