Help populating some encounter tables

[Albions_Angel]

Hi all,

Im having a mental block just now. I am trying to populate my desert area encounter tables from the MMs and Sandstorm and a few other books. But I am drawing a blank. Can you suggest some creatures for me to use, as well as some CR0 "non-encounters" to use? Also weather and natural hazards. I can deal with how frequent things should be, I just need the actual encounters and their CR/references. I am much more familiar with frostburn and cold climates so this is all new to me.

I have a few categories.

CR 1-5 Populated Floodplanes :- think Nile floodplane, well populated, settlements within half a days journey of each other.

CR 3-10 Wild Scrub-land :- on the edge of the floodplanes and on the coasts, less populated, able to travel a couple of days without settlements. But not full on Savannah as thats elsewhere in my world.

CR 5-13 High Desert :- here we are into Sahara type terrain. Sand for miles, sometimes rocky outcrops. Ancient ruins of long dead Egyptian (Marru) ruins. Marruspawn are here, but there are also isolated Bhuka communities, and desert goblin camps.

CR 8-15 Deep Wastes :- the wastes and all that comes with them. This is the "dont go here without major preparation" part of the region.

Any help would be appreciated!

[the_david]

This might help a little bit: http://www.monsteradvancer.com You'll need the Random Encounter Chart Generator.

[Gingaroth]

I think it would be easiest to use the random encounter tables for deserts, savannah (warm) swamps, and urban areas as a starting point. These ones, for example: d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/indexes-and-tables/encounter-tables (I can't post links yet, just copy/paste it). Page 91 of the DMG also offers a sample warm dessert encounter table, and short overview of desert terrain features.

Just remove anything that doesn’t work for your campaign from the list and replace them with creatures you like. Maybe merge some tables to create an ‘urban swampy area’ table, and such.

I like this creature finder very much: monsterfinder.dndrunde.de . If you set it on ‘warm deserts/plains/marshes’ exclude, ‘any’ and ‘land’ and type in the desired CR range, you’ll have a list of creatures typical for the environments you describes in no time.

If you have access to them, it might be worthwhile to take a look at Ancient kingdoms Mesopotamia from Necromancer Games, Nile Empire: war in Heliopolis and Endless Sands: Arabian Adventures from Avalanche press, and the Pharaonic section of Deities and Demigods, for more ideas and new monsters for delta-and-desert environments.

Here are some quick ideas I had for the 1st category:
Relatively high percentage of encounters with humans (e.g. a commoner with some easily solved problem, traders, beggars, pick-pockets, street robbers, an angry mob, a demanding local authority)
Animals found only in or near the river: crocodiles, hippopotamus, big carnivorous fishes, leeches.
Other animals and vermin: baboons, hyenas, scorpions, spiders, snakes.
If you want to include non-threatening animals, some examples are : small fishes, turtles, tortoises, lizards, birds (e.g. ibis), cats, dogs, small monkeys, oxen, camels.
Ideas for the 2nd :
Humans: A trading caravan, a group of nomads, a traveling druid/priest/prophet.
Animals: Rhinoceroses, elephants, vultures, jackal, hyena, lions, scorpions, spiders, snakes.
Monsters: Lycantropes based on local animals (like werecrocodiles, jackalwere), mephitis (e.g. dust, salt)
Ideas for the 3rd :
Humans: Hidden lairs of robbers, slavers, or an isolationist cult.
Animals: Animals: Vultures, jackals, hyena, lions, scorpions, spiders, and snakes again. Increase the CR by using their large/dire/monstrous variants, or use them in groups.
Monsters: Mummies, greater mummies, stone golems guarding tombs or temples, sphinxes.
Ideas for the 4th :
Elementals (e.g. fire or earth), various kinds of Genies, Blue dragons, Brown Dragons, Rattelyr Dragons, Desert Landwyrms, Hoard scarabs (Draconomicon), Scarab of death (item), Quicksand (see DMG page 88).

[BowStreetRunner]

Check these out.

100 Dungeons And Dragons Roadside Encounters (https://nerdsonearth.com/2016/02/100-dungeons-and-dragons-roadside-encounters-2/)
Improving Your Encounter Tables With Gimmicks! (http://tenfootpolemic.blogspot.com/2017/08/improving-your-encounter-tables-with.html)

[Braininthejar2]

* Stone pillars with warnings in an ancient language, telling trespassers to *&^% off. A dry lich lives there, mostly lost in religious contemplation, but he likes his desert untouched by mortal feet - if the players do trespass, he will show up to scold them (an old cranky guy with "get off my lawn" attitude, except he packs instant death by dehydration instead of a shotgun - things might get messy if the players talk back)

* A bunch of small rocky hills, surrounded by desert, where a tribe of desert gnomes makes their home. They're currently a bit stuck - the caves have lost their source of water, and the next nearest one doesn't have enough safe space around it for the tribe to move to, forcing them to make dangerous trips to get water for the tribe. (of course there are sand worms here... the gnomes are small and light, but foreigners might lose a camel or two before they realise the danger)

- The gnomes are sorely lacking a proper divine caster, so might trade information or guide services with anyone who can conjure water. They might also have a related quest, from "go underground and kill the thing sitting on our spring" to "there used to be a wizard here. He hated guests, but he must have got his water from somewhere... we haven't seen him for months, and we think he has died, but his cave still has some dangerous wards guarding the entrance".