[3.5] CR5 Jungle Encounters for new players

[mattie_p]

So I run an Eberron campaign and the party is now heading into the jungles of Qbarra. Dwarven cleric, gnome rogue, half orc barbarian, elf warlock, and occasionally the half elf ranger shows up.

All of the players are relatively new ( a troll nearly took out the cleric because he forgot he could cast spells).

Looking for cr5 encounters that are interesting and memorable but not too OP. I have pretty much all the books so idea and/or sourcebooks welcome. Thanks in advance.

[Eldariel]

Classic plant encounters include Assassin Vines that could fit well. While nominally in temperate forests, you could use 'em in a jungle just as well. Two of 'em makes for CR 5 and while not threatening the whole party, can likely put two characters at real risk, depending on how smart they fight. In general, Assassin Vines can be quite strong thanks to the Entangle + Grapple combination making it hard for others to help the one in trouble.

Lizardfolk with class levels (Blackscales for instance) are a minor player so I recommend giving that some thought as well. Clerics, Warriors, etc. You should be able to craft such an engagement organically.

[mattie_p]

I'm all over the lizardfolk, I'm running a modified "Eyes of the lich queen" so they'll be hitting an enemy lizardfolk encampment in a week or so. Module indicates we should speed things along and just get there but that doesn't seem right, wandering around in the jungle for a week, I gotta think they'd be stumbling into things pretty regularly, especially considering how the ranger rolls on survival checks...

[ExLibrisMortis]

Hmmmm how about something really big, way above the party's pay grade (especially in how it looks), except that it can't move for the trees and vines? Something like a gargantuan phaerlin giant* War Hulk 4 with an improvised greatclub (tree trunk). Jungle canopies tend to be very closely interwoven with vines, and that could easily hold back a big brute, plus the trees provide free cover and concealment, not to mention a height advantage, if the party can climb.

The above would get you a giant which, while impressively big, with 34 strength and 134 hp, brings only 20' speed, AC 20, SR 14, and +2 Ref/Will saves. It has two attacks: improvised greatclub +12 (4d8+19) and fifty-pound rock +16 (2d8+13, 50' increment). The message is: take cover and don't get close to the thing (it has claws and a bite, too).

War Hulk adds a special attack to spice it up. Mighty Swing makes all its attacks hit three adjacent squares. Simple, but really cool--not many creatures can do that. I suggest rolling for damage to adjacent trees--objects take half damage, but the giant should be able to do about 13 points of damage per round to a tree. A tree easily has a hundred hp, so that shouldn't be too dangerous, but it creates a little time crunch.

If you want to make the encounter a bit easier, especially damage-wise, you can assume the giant was hit by some strength-damaging poison beforehand. I'm sure there's plenty of that in the jungle. You could also impose the Entangled condition, which would reduce its speed to 10', and prevents it from charging.


*A really weak giant type from Monsters of Faerûn. Unique in that they are Huge at CR 3. They normally don't grow to gargantuan, but who cares.

[daremetoidareyo]

Dinosaur bro. Velociraptors?

Dream serpents from secrets of xendric are cool too. Maybe 2nd level druid rearing them for money?

Maybe have the druid show up post combat and demand 200 gp in restitution

[mattie_p]

Classic plant encounters include Assassin Vines that could fit well. While nominally in temperate forests, you could use 'em in a jungle just as well. Two of 'em makes for CR 5 and while not threatening the whole party, can likely put two characters at real risk, depending on how smart they fight. In general, Assassin Vines can be quite strong thanks to the Entangle + Grapple combination making it hard for others to help the one in trouble.

Very decent idea by the way, I could set them along the foot path at a likely campsite and make it their lair. And then I can drop some wands (CLW or lesser Vigor) or something because they had to resort to force-feeding random unidentified potions to the cleric to ensure his survival. (saved by potion of bears endurance :smallbiggrin:).


Hmmmm how about something really big, way above the party's pay grade (especially in how it looks), except that it can't move for the trees and vines? Something like a gargantuan phaerlin giant* War Hulk 4 with an improvised greatclub (tree trunk). Jungle canopies tend to be very closely interwoven with vines, and that could easily hold back a big brute, plus the trees provide free cover and concealment, not to mention a height advantage, if the party can climb.

I definitely would not have come up on this on my own, very nice idea. Plus the players are always asking if something is a giant so they can get their +4 AC, this will be obvious and make them feel a little confidence that might not be warranted.


*A really weak giant type from Monsters of Faerûn. Unique in that they are Huge at CR 3. They normally don't grow to gargantuan, but who cares.

I certainly don't. But thinking this through, in Eberron they were enslaved by daelkyr (not phaerimm) in Khyber (not the Underdark), not hard to spin this one at all, and now we have a new species in the world.


Dinosaur bro. Velociraptors?

Dream serpents from secrets of xendric are cool too. Maybe 2nd level druid rearing them for money?

Maybe have the druid show up post combat and demand 200 gp in restitution

Was already thinking dinosaur/velociraptor. But to spice it up, was thinking a pteranodon might see them fighting and try to scoop up one of the PCs (the gnome, of course) for a snack later. Or maybe I'll do the dream snakes, but I'd have to think on that.

Edit: Just remembered I want to throw a manifest zone from some plane in there for some funky stuff. They (me)had a lot of fun when they were fleeing from Darguun and I decided that Fernia (plane of fire) was coterminous. The grasslands got set on fire by their pursuit, a salamander showed up so they hid in a cave inhabited by a demonhive (MM IV), who had a pet land octopus that used smoke instead of ink. Good times.

[denthor]

Giant ants, cockroaches,

Old school encounter giant frogs can swallow gnome whole. 6 should do it

[Bucky]

3 Apes seems like a good start. You could run it in a couple of configurations.

Balcony: The apes start the encounter in a section of tree canopy about 15' off the ground that's dense enough to act as normal ground, albeit difficult terrain. They start by hurling rocks. Once they run out of rocks - they have 6 total - they climb down to lower branches 5' off the ground and start clawing.

Vertical tackle squad: The apes simply drop into the party from hidden spots in the canopy during the surprise round. One of them, who has Improved Grapple in place of her normal feats, tries to grab a weak looking party member and either kill them or drag them up a tree; the other two are just muscle and claw between the victim and the rest of the party.

[ksbsnowowl]

Forest Trolls (MM3) are CR 4. They are Medium, not Large, and have fast healing instead of regeneration.

They are giants, so the dwarven abilities against giants would come into play. With climb speeds and poisoned spears, they are a great foe to throw at them from the canopy. Two of them would be a difficult EL 6 encounter.

Howler Wasps (MM4) could be an unusual jungle encounter. Howler wasps are CR 1, but Queens are CR 5. Getting attacked by a swarm of the CR 1 versions, and then later fighting the queen with a few more, could be a decent pair of encounters.

Quanlos (MM4) are CR 6, and are described as sometimes being in jungle terrain. They would be a thematic and terrifying encounter, if the monster's abilities end up affecting members of the party (Fort saves).

[mattie_p]

Thanks everyone for the help and ideas, I took these, smashed some of them together, and spat it out. Now that I've run the session, here's what I ended up going with.

Day 1: 3x Assassin Vines at campsite. Party decided near sundown to search for a likely campsite. I rolled their spot check to ID the vines secretly, none of them made it. There were 2 piles of rocks near the roots of the vines (previous prey), when the party examined them I had the vines spring up and attack. The vines grappled and knocked unconscious the gnome rogue and elf warlock, nearly knocked out the dwarf cleric as well but the ranger and barbarian chopped the vines to pieces before they killed anyone. In the aftermath they checked out the "fertilizer" and discovered a wand of lesser vigor (which they'll use), bracers of armor +2 (which they'll pawn), figurine of wondrous power: silver raven (utility, maybe), arcane scrolls of invisibility, levitate, and animate dead.

This one could be interesting. The warlock's player's eyes lit up upon hearing this. She took obtain familiar and likes the ideas of having minions - so I might steer her towards "the dead walk" invocation. No one yet seems to have an issue with this OOC but the cleric is NG. But it is Eberron after all, Karrnath is a place. I'll encourage them to play nice.

Day 2: Aside from the vines, the night passed uneventful, they move on out and encounter the modified Phaerlin Giant. I wasn't sure if they were going to try to fight or just avoid. Instead they did neither. Ranger and Rogue scout ahead upon hearing the racket, and walk back to find the others. (Yes, they could have used the silver raven figurine.... but they wanted to "save it for when they need it." (sigh).

After some discussion just out of hearing range they send the rogue (who hates giants) forward to talk to the giant, just out of striking range (he has a plethora of spoken languages available), and uses enough diplomacy to not immediately strike. I decide that the giant was sent out from Khyber by the Daelkyr to find Eberron or Siberys dragonshards, as the Khyber shards don't work for whatever plot the Daeklyr are hatching. As suggested, he's quite entangled in the trees and vines and is making slow progress, more so because he doesn't exactly know what he's looking for other than "they need shards, Khyber shards won't work need Eberron and Siberys. If I don't get shards they'll hurt my family, need to get some shards." Gnome, on behalf of the party, promises to look for shards and send word, then they all walk around and are on their way. I award some xp for successfully navigating an obstacle and they're off. They find a campsite and rest peacefully.

Day 3: In the pre-dawn hours as the sky begins to lighten and the diurnal fauna stirs the barbarian hears a cry in the distance. She can't make it out at first but eventually she can clearly hear someone calling for "Petunia." She wakes the others and they send the very stealthy rogue out to discover what is wandering around. Turns out its a slightly daft (OK, more than slightly, also might be a cultivar of certain herbs), but very perceptive human bearing the very unlikely name of Zifnab, who is looking for his pet "Petunia." Petunia is described in loving terms, flying about majestically, with luxurious brown hide, exquisite scaly eye ridges, and an adorable head ridge behind her ears.

At this point the players are absolutely convinced that this is a wizard with a pet dragon, especially the one player who read "Deathgate Cycle." The gnome rogue is having none of it (the same rogue who apparently trusts a giant from the underworld doesn't want any part of a lone human), as Zifnab approaches the campsite and the remnants of the fire from the previous night, he remains outside camp. Zifnab rekindles the fire with a spell and also produces some goodberries on the spot (now revealed to be a druid with a pterodactyl companion) as an act of good will, they all eat the berries except the gnome who stubbornly remains outside camp and claims he's on watch.

They all chat a bit. Zifnab shares some information about the communities and politics of the lizardfolk deeper in the jungle, including the new threats of the blackscales and poison dusk lizardfolk (from the module). and the party promises to keep an eye out for Petunia, Zifnab wildshapes into an eagle and takes flight, resuming the search for his animal companion. (No XP awarded as this was not an obstacle).

Halfway through the day they encounter a wide stream with a mostly ruined rope bridge. Two ropes survive, top and bottom from left side of the bridge. Everyone is about ready to use the ropes or swim across but the dwarf cleric decides he's not going that way, he wants to chop down a tree tall enough and walk across on something solid. (Probably reading too much OOTS, he decided on the spot to declare war on trees and possibly vampiric enough to avoid crossing running water - maybe animate dead WON'T be a problem after all.) So he gets to work chopping down a tree, personally, with his small axe. After an hour he's not making much progress and the barbarian takes over.

Well all this noise attracts some wildlife to investigate. Small pack of velociraptors comes out from the woods and brush and surprises the party except for the ranger and his wolf. It's not a particularly difficult battle except that the rogue who is used to hiding and sniping is suddenly on the front lines and can't seem to hide or get a good flanking position.

They kill off the velociraptors and the session ended for the evening, leaving them with the challenges of chopping down the rest of the tree, possibly tracking the velociraptors back to their lair to see if there's anything of value there, and me reminding the party and the warlock in particular that they suddenly have access to 4 corpses, ya know, if they need corpses for anything in particular.

Thanks for the help, I'll use the other ideas posted here for the way back as we're almost into module territory again.

[daremetoidareyo]

Bravo. Thanks for the update.

[Eldariel]

Nice going. Thanks for keeping us informed - journals of others' (mis)adventures are always fun to read!

[ExLibrisMortis]

Aww, I wanted the giant to sweep across the party and scare them into the trees...

Thanks for the update :smallwink:.