Random Encounters for 10th Level Characters

[Chester]

I'd like to sprinkle random encounters into my next run as DM. Rather than use standard tables, I'd like to compile a list of adequately challenging monsters.

Level 10 highly powered party. Five members. Are there suggestions for challenging creatures to meet in the wilderness? (I'm already planning an enemy party, so this list would just be for randoms.)

[DirePorkChop]

I just had my party of 5 run across a Medusa Ghost. Save or take ability damage. Save or turn to stone. Save or be panicked for 2d4 rounds. The characters were not pleased with how difficult it was. It was an encounter designed entirely around making saves or bad stuff happens. the best part is, you can tell them all about medusa, talk her up, make her sound big and bad, and when they finally approach her, they realize that she's dead, but still more than capable of kicking their butts. Two people took Ab damage, and three of the party panicked, fleeing for their lives. Mwahahaha!

[ExLibrisMortis]

Hmmm...

How about some annoying evasion tanks, using reach, Evasive Reflexes, Setting Sun counters, and high speed/Tumble? These guys can be anything from advanced-but-standard bandits to thief-acrobats looking for a challenging heist/fight/battle of wits.

You're also at the level where Shadowpounce comes online, which can throw the party off a bit. Straight-up dropping five sneak attacks on the wizard may be a bit unpleasant, but if you add debilitating effects (ability damage!), you can fight attrition battles (restoration takes three rounds - enough to teleport out, heal, and pounce back in). Tell your wizard about anticipate teleporation after the first encounter, they'll thank you. Especially good if the party has had some encounters with organized thieves before.

Elan psionic artificer 13 should be CR 13, still just about within range, right?

Craft an item of astral seed and one of fusion - power stones will do. Use fusion on an unconscious black ethergaunt, then use astral seed. Do the whole die-and-regrow thing. You're now level 12, with 16th-level wizard casting and immunity to all spells of sixth level and lower. Remember to take the cost of the items out of your NPC wealth. I would also recommend awarding XP for a CR 13 encounter, even though the artificer is level 12 in the end.

Before you start thinking that it's rather overpowered, which it could be, keep in mind that our artificer is facing a 5-to-1 action disadvantage. Use this strategy, both to stay in the fight, and not to blow up the party with high-end magic: prepare every spell Still and Silent, effectively reducing your casting to 6ths, albeit with a high CL. Use an item of schism to get a second spells per turn, and arcane spellsurge for a third. Buff up with infusions, and keep out of melee range whenever possible.

Three spells per turn at CL 16, with a move action left, and infusions on top of that. Should be enough to be a decent challenge.

This guy can be a really fancy safecracker, attacking the local Haute Artifice Royale (magic mart for posh people). As the PCs go in to shop a bit, there's a quiet heist in the basement, just about to be discovered.

[Eldariel]

I'd like to sprinkle random encounters into my next run as DM. Rather than use standard tables, I'd like to compile a list of adequately challenging monsters.

Level 10 highly powered party. Five members. Are there suggestions for challenging creatures to meet in the wilderness? (I'm already planning an enemy party, so this list would just be for randoms.)

Honestly, you can just take the DMG listings and modify the monsters a bit (advance, give 'em templates, change around their feats, include organizations of them, etc.). That said, more on the kind of wilderness? Spirits of vengeance and certain undead and such tend to be rather fearsome if the land still bears scars of past wars for instance. I wrote about it in the "most frustrating monsters"-listing but Ragewalker (MM3) is one of the most frustrating creatures I've encountered to date and it's CR13 and can command a couple of Living Spells. You can make fun organizations out of that.

Outsiders generally come with friends. A small organization of Legion Devils [Fiendish Codex II] commanded by a Bone Devil essentially splitting the enemy into groups that can be stormed by the Legion Devils one at a time can make for an amusing encounter. Perhaps a result of failed summons, escaping their master's command or just a soul hunting patrol.

Ironmaw [Fiend Folio] are hilarious creatures to run into in forest environments. Also extremely brutal. However, there's no guarantee a level 10 party with access to Teleport would ever walk through a Forest unless they were searching for something specific there.

In a wet setting, there are always the Drowned which are just nasty. Their aura is really, really scary and especially with some support, they're very hard to kill.


There are thousands of options. There's no way I will ever cover even a fraction of the interesting possible encounters. But, perhaps take these as some ideas - and remember, the environment matters a lot.

Aberrations can always make for a challenge; Aboleths, Illithids, Beholders, etc. backed up by their appropriate organizations and in guises of appropriate level can be straight-up brutal. Nothing wrong with some random class levels on different ones either. I always wanted to run an enemy Beholder Mage :smalltongue:

[Elder_Basilisk]

In general, I don't think that random encounters should challenge 10th level characters. If they do, it should only be somewhere unusually dangerous like the Isle of Dread, the Abyss, Iggwilv's Horn, the Causeway of Fiends, or White Plume Mountain. And when they are hit by the challenging random encounters, the nature of the encounters will depend upon where they are. If it's Iggwilv's Horn, it could be an entire tribe of demon-blooded gnolls or an advanced, half-fiend dracolisk. If it's the Isle of Dread, it will probably be dinosaurs. On the causeway of fiends, it could be a flight of Vrocks. Etc.