Ideas to challenge 6 lvl 5 players

[Mad_Saulot]

I have 6 level 5 players:

Female Mountain Dwarf Barbiarian Totem (OwlBear)- Lana Stubbs
Male Illuskan Human Rogue Thief (the only none good character, you know the type)- Jonas Kjerson
Male Illuskan Human Fighter Champion (Group Leader)- Vicus Mars
Female Stout Halfling Ranger Hunter (The Cook/Archer)- Twintwix
Male Half-Orc Barbarian Totem (Bear)- Baraka
Male Gnome Monk (OpenPalm)- Filius Nimbledigit

All level 5

They can take on all the mobs thrown at them so far even driving off a young green dragon (they just had to take off half its health). A few near deaths but they never seem to have any trouble, they arent a very tactical bunch but their numbers seem to compensate for their inexperience. Theyre all new to DnD, I'm the only veteran.

At the moment theyre dealing with a Lovecraftian Terror/Mystery where theyre trapped in a very large hotel searching for an orb that an unspeakable terror wants, the players must find the orb in order to get the terror to stop eating ppl. The terror gives off a constant drone that prevents long rests and I've instilled a definite sense of oppression exhaustion and horror into them. The terror itself is outside most of the time, as ppl inside the hotel go mad and a bizare cult goes around cutting ppl and transforming into smaller horrors.

The party have realised who has the orb and is following him into the forgotten dungeons beneath the hotel. I was wondering if it would be too much if I made the dungeon a mummies crypt and unleashed a bit of undead carnage.

What do you guys think?

EDIT: Ive expanded the scope of my question, I considered mummies because I've nevr used them before, I've used all the usual suspects, the obvious monsterous humanoid races, pretty much every kind of undead, demon, devil etc, and dragons always feature in my DnD games (its in the name).

But I am looking for new challengesthat I have never used and they, as newish players might find challenging and terrifying.

[EvilAnagram]

Mummies are CR 3. Go ahead and throw them at the party two at a time. Or back it up with a ghast and a few ghouls.

[MrStabby]

A mummy Lord will be a bit much although if your are playing the terror/tension game a mummy Lord hunting the players through its own tomb could be good. Never stay still, always scout. The mummy always knows where they are, moving closer, slowly minute by minute. Puts a nice clock on things.

[Asmotherion]

6 Level 5 characters? They're enough for a Mummy Lord!

Jokes aside, don't worry so much. Level 5 Characters are not frail. I'd be much more worried about the fact that their party doesn't have a single real caster... What is this party's name, Muggles United or something? :P

PS: When you want to mix Lovecraftian Magic and D&D, you can still have Casters; Look up Sanity Score, Wild Magic/Dead Magic Zones and Old One Patron from Warlock, as well as the Illithid, Aberations and Fiends in the MM to get a basic "feel". Play them as "Humanoid casters are the normal ones, wile those things defy any logic"... think of the Beholder and how it's Magic Works for example!

[Mad_Saulot]

Aye no casters, well, except for the ranger I suppose, I encouraged them to choose the races and classs they liked rather than tactically thought out class distribution, andwe've found that magic is a nice luxury, unessential.

The great thing about having no casters is I can give them more mystery style adventures, take this current quest, if anyone had Locate Object I'd have been up the creek lol.

But also when they encounter magic I really describe it in a visceral and powerful way, so when a lighteningbolt happens nearby its an impressive experience.

I guess a better title would be "Ideas to challenge 6 lvl 5 players"

[sithlordnergal]

Question, do they have magical weapons? If so, there is a neat boss monster in the Forgotten Traditions module. It is immune to non-magical weapon damage, but you can change it to resistant. The cool part is that it uses a bunch of magical runes carved into it to have different effects.

For example, it has a poison rune that creates a poisonous mist around it that lets it heal itself, or a fire rune that lets it burn targets who get too close. Give it some mooks that can fly and take some hits, and you can engage everyone.

Another room could have a trap from ToA. It's a charisma save, and if you fa you gain 50 temp hp, and you're sent into a rage that forces you to attack the nearest creature. Add in a creature or two, and you can give the party a difficult fight. Especially since they will, hopefully, be fighting one of their own members.

[Mad_Saulot]

Aye they have some magic items, Vicus has a sword he found in a underground temple of Bane, the sword is called "Vexxer" and is a +1 Longsword, it is made of pressed cold iron and is repulsive to fey and the sword is as cold as the void (but its just a +1 sword, I like flavour) It was created by the Wriathlords of the Mythos Balaal, a long ago defeated legion of incorporeal undead.

Baraka has a ring of protection and a nonmagical silver maul

Jonas has a Ring of Misty Step (gnome made cobalt ring with tiny inscriptions in sylvan that tells the story of the tortoise and the hare)

Filius has a nonmagical gadget staff that replicates the effect of colour spray and can fire sleeping darts.

Magic items are not readily available, and there are no "magic shops" trade in magical items tends to happen on the sly or via major factions, common and uncommon magic items may be readily available in major citires or via factions like the Red Enclaves. Anything rarer than that can be aquired in a similar way as rare art is in the real world, you need contacts, vouches and alot of gold. Though the players have yet to attempt to buy or sell rare items.

[DMThac0]

You're doing a horror themed game where the atmosphere is well defined in your opinion. Time to crank up the atmosphere since the creatures aren't doing it. Yea, toss them CR3/4 mobs, you'll get a better feel for what they're capable of and how far you can crank that CR scale. Even if the fight goes wonky you can use the horror theme to make up some gruesome way the creature escapes or a bigger fish eats this smaller fish which is eating your players...

But don't stop at the creatures, make the world their enemy. Tables and chairs that walk across the room, interrupting the fight, coming to the aid of the monsters. Floors that start to heave like it's breathing, acrobatics checks to keep your balance. Walls that warp and reel making the room change shape during combat. Gravity defying rooms where the players/monsters are stuck on the floor/ceiling opposite each other and the monsters have a slight advantage in ranged combat. And yea, toss that creepy inexplicable beast at them, you know the one, it's hunting them, it's neigh impossible to beat, and it's always just around the corner when you don't want it to be...but somehow the party just manages to escape.

Challenge is more than bags of hp and 8d6 damage per turn...give them something truly challenging and horrific!

[strangebloke]

I'm running a 1-shot for 6 level 5 guys next week!

My encounters:

2 trolls (hard)
short rest
1 troll or 5 goblins(Easy)
stealth encounters (Medium)
Razorvine(Medium)
short rest
1 oni, 3 goblins (Deadly, but surprise is possible)
Short rest
1 young green dragon(hard, optional)

[Mad_Saulot]

You're doing a horror themed game where the atmosphere is well defined in your opinion. Time to crank up the atmosphere since the creatures aren't doing it. Yea, toss them CR3/4 mobs, you'll get a better feel for what they're capable of and how far you can crank that CR scale. Even if the fight goes wonky you can use the horror theme to make up some gruesome way the creature escapes or a bigger fish eats this smaller fish which is eating your players...

But don't stop at the creatures, make the world their enemy. Tables and chairs that walk across the room, interrupting the fight, coming to the aid of the monsters. Floors that start to heave like it's breathing, acrobatics checks to keep your balance. Walls that warp and reel making the room change shape during combat. Gravity defying rooms where the players/monsters are stuck on the floor/ceiling opposite each other and the monsters have a slight advantage in ranged combat. And yea, toss that creepy inexplicable beast at them, you know the one, it's hunting them, it's neigh impossible to beat, and it's always just around the corner when you don't want it to be...but somehow the party just manages to escape.

Challenge is more than bags of hp and 8d6 damage per turn...give them something truly challenging and horrific!

Wooot I like your suggestiins, esp the breathing floor, there is an apocalyptic storm keeping everyone indoors while the terror occasionally bursts into the hotel to devour ppl, elemental and physical difficulties are great proper PvE, like in one encounter they were fighting some cultists in the hotel warehouse and a fire breaks out, the ranger opens the outer doors to use the storm to put out the fires while the other players are screaming @Dont open the doors@ was ultra tense and they had a job closing the doors while an unspeakable thing lumbers towards the open entry.