Looking for Ideas on Encounters that have more than just things to kill (low levels)

[Zertryx]

I'm currently about to start up a new campaign with my players and as much fun as i have doing just PC vs horde of monsters sometimes i like to add other "elements" to a battle that help make the encounter more than just pc vs monster on flat surface.

So what kinda interesting things could i add to battles (mainly for low levels right now, levels 1-4) to spice things up to go along with the combat. What are some neat ideas you have ran with success or have played in that you enjoyed? Currently i just been thinking of adding small areas of rough terrain / high ground to make the combat slighty more interesting but for all my battles would seem still very vanilla (which im ok with for a few battles here and there but i dont want every battle to be just like that)

Also if it helps i have 5 players and we are sticking with only official printed books + Eberron pdf, No UA or Homebrew

[kamap]

- In a dungeon with traps you can add them and throw in a perception check for the players so if they succeed they can set the traps off on the mooks.
Can also be done in a forest where hunters try and trap game.
- On a mountain side where there are loose rocks the adventurers could bring those down on the mooks.
- Have a fight on a rope bridge over a river, if someone (friend or foe) falls or is thrown over, they have to try and get to the side of the river to get out of it but they run the risk of loosing gear (You could have them search for it by diving for it or following the river downstream, ...) or even have the bridge fail because of damage done to the bridge by misses and such, then you can continue the fight in the water.
- Have a fight on a snowy mountain side, if they make to much noise the snow starts moving, making it difficult terrain.
Have them roll a dexterity or strength saving check to stay standing with the DC slowly rising the longer the fight lasts because the snow starts moving faster and faster.
If they fail they are swept away by the snow for x feet, towards a ravine, when they do go over have them roll another saving throw so they could grab onto the ledge.
If they fail that you could have their character unconcious and starting on dead saving throws, the ravine isn't deep enough and their gear gets scatterd around them but is all findable.
Maybe its not a straight down drop but they fall bouncing from rock to rock or through trees so they aren't killed outright but are knocked out and during their tumble they might loose gear. If they are smart enough they will have anchored themselves with ropes to each other or to something that can hold them.
- Give the players time to set up an ambush, they might come up with fun ideas. Aka the swinging log with spikes on, pit traps, rope across the road to topple riders of their horses and there are many others.

I hope this gave you some ideas.

[opaopajr]

Diversify XP from merely killing monsters. :smallsmile:

Mix in the other two pillars (Explore & Social), yes even in combat. Monsters can run away, split up, or have more motivation beyond bloodthirst. :smalltongue:

Add random tables so the encounters even surprise you: this helps when your mind is tired from planning or improvising. Have some for social reaction, encountered distance, surprise, morale, motive, etc. :smallcool:

Those three things lead to an endless series of interesting encounters, and may even create side content after effects.

[kamap]

opaopajr has an interesting idea indeed, there could very well be talking during a fight or even before and the fight could be solved socially.
You: Do you want to die today?
Mook: Not really.
You: Well me neither.
Mook: So what do you think if we both just go our ways?
You: Don't you have to (insert whatever the mook is supposed to be doing).
Mook: Eh, I was thinking about changing careers anyway.
You: Good luck then.

Strictly social encounters are fun to. You need to get past a guard without using violence, have to blend in with the rich folks to discover a nefarious plan, ...
Though exploration does happen before and after fights but throw in some puzzles there that could count as an encounter.

[GreyBlack]

PC's are sent to rescue a child from a Goblin hoard. Said child is the daughter of a hag and is beginning to manifest their powers, and the goblins are trying to complete the ritual to complete this little girl's transformation. After the PC's kill the goblin, the child attacks the PC's.

[Zanthy1]

PC's are sent to rescue a child from a Goblin hoard. Said child is the daughter of a hag and is beginning to manifest their powers, and the goblins are trying to complete the ritual to complete this little girl's transformation. After the PC's kill the goblin, the child attacks the PC's.

That's still just another combat scenario...

[GreyBlack]

That's still just another combat scenario...

The OP was asking for things to spice up your "kill hordes of dudes" style encounters as I interpreted it. This is more than a combat encounter because they have to decide if they want to kill the child who is actively trying to kill them. It's a moral hazard.

[ImproperJustice]

I had a party of PCs engage a group of kobolds who were raising captured chickens underground as a food source. Early in the fight, the chickens were released and began hopping all over the confined space. There was a chance for each swing that a chicken could be struck resulting in more chicken panic and a cloud of feathers.

It ended when the Nature Cleric used their channel divinity to turn the chickens......

Then there was the battle with the Red Thumb Orc Tribe and their hidden pie factory, and resultant food fight on conveyer belts.

[Zertryx]

I had a party of PCs engage a group of kobolds who were raising captured chickens underground as a food source. Early in the fight, the chickens were released and began hopping all over the confined space. There was a chance for each swing that a chicken could be struck resulting in more chicken panic and a cloud of feathers.

It ended when the Nature Cleric used their channel divinity to turn the chickens......

Then there was the battle with the Red Thumb Orc Tribe and their hidden pie factory, and resultant food fight on conveyer belts.

Lmao this is great, i can just picture the Kobolds being horrified that their food is about to be slaughtered and trying to save the chickens in the fight.

Overall these all gave some decent ideas to start thank you all, any more ideas always welcomed =] im also always a big fan of "on going" traps or hazards that happen every round or every few rounds that are dangerous to both sides while fights are taking place as well if anyone has good ideas for things like that at level 1 that wont kill my party XD

[NRSASD]

One that I ran but alas was averted due to extreme coincidences was a fight in knee deep water that concealed multiple 15 ft deep pools. The PCs were fighting Kuo-Toa at the time, who merrily bullrushed and grappled PCs into the water and turned an ordinary fight into a drowning contest. Or at least that was the plan. The paladin accidentally became Kuo-Toa jesus instead, due to a string of 20's, some well placed alter self spells, and the actor background.

[kamap]

- The moving snow in my previous post is such a thing, can also be fighting in a storm with a really powerfull wind.
- Water geisers that sprout up, doing a little fire dmg because of it beeing basically steam and very hot water. Dex save for no dmg.
- Carnivorous plants that if you get to close will eat you, doesn't kill you straight away but you get some acid dmg each couple of turns. dex save to avoid, strenght save to keep from beeing eaten.
- You are fighting in a cave or castle or something that could be brought crumbling down caused by BBEG who then flees and leaves his minions behind. It becomes a running battle with rocks dropping (dex save for no dmg) they have x turns to get to safety (In a castle they could just jump trough a window if they think about it), if they make it all is fine and dandy if they don't they are knocked out and awaken captured and in the BBEG's prison.

[ImproperJustice]

One that I ran but alas was averted due to extreme coincidences was a fight in knee deep water that concealed multiple 15 ft deep pools. The PCs were fighting Kuo-Toa at the time, who merrily bullrushed and grappled PCs into the water and turned an ordinary fight into a drowning contest. Or at least that was the plan. The paladin accidentally became Kuo-Toa jesus instead, due to a string of 20's, some well placed alter self spells, and the actor background.

Back in 3.5 I had a similar issue where the PCs ended up fighting a pack of wolves in a shallow river. It was not designed this way, but as the wolves began tripping some of the PCs they suddenly found themselves drowning.

[Arkhios]

After a slightly drunken discussion, me and my friend came up with an idea of a triangular pyramid-shaped chamber seemingly full of kobolds with crystalline scales. The walls of the chamber act like mirrors and the kobolds' scales reflect mirror images for each kobold in the room.

Every kobold adds up to an electrifying field (which also sheds dim blue light, so the encounter isn't in complete darkness) dealing lightning damage to everyone except the kobolds once each round. The more there are kobolds alive, the more it deals damage. Each kobold has mirror image with three illusory kobolds around them.

The mirrors on the walls can be broken, and each broken mirror reduces the number of the illusory kobolds by one for each kobold (alive or not). The images can't be removed by any other means.

The characters would end up in the chamber via trapped teleportation circle, so they can't just ignore the encounter once they've seen it. Once all mirrors are broken, the walls - and the kobolds - shatter into sparkling dust and the PC's can continue whatever they were doing before.

I was planning to include an encounter like this for a future campaign set in Eberron.

The exact number of kobolds is pretty much up to you, but if you have 10 kobolds, it'd look like you were up against 40 kobolds instead! :D

[Laserlight]

One that I wanted to run but never quite got to is a James Bond style chase down a ski slope, where the players have to choose between going faster (with higher "control your skiing" DC), going over moguls and such that need a more difficult DC, or taking it slow and safe but letting the pursuing skiing-gnomes-with-lightning-guns catch up. Note: don't bother if one of the characters can upcast Fly to cover everyone.

Another Bond-ish one was the characters hastily boarded an elevated tram and discovered more gnomes were aboard. They had to prevent the ones on the roof from disconnecting their car from the hooks that supported it from the cable; fend off the squad in the next car; and, in this case, realize that the controls had gotten blasted by a lightning gun, and try to repair it before the car went around a curve too fast and jumped off the cable.

[BRC]

Don't underestimate the effect that simple terrain can have on a fight. Walls, Pillars, piles of rubble, barricades and the like can have a significant impact on the fight. If your encounters have been in 30x30 empty rooms, spice things up.



On a more complicated front, I once did an encounter that took place in a old building during a massive storm. Every turn I destroyed some of the cover. Anything outside cover was difficult terrain, and anybody starting their turn or moving outside cover took damage.

[Zertryx]

After a slightly drunken discussion, me and my friend came up with an idea of a triangular pyramid-shaped chamber seemingly full of kobolds with crystalline scales. The walls of the chamber act like mirrors and the kobolds' scales reflect mirror images for each kobold in the room.

Every kobold adds up to an electrifying field (which also sheds dim blue light, so the encounter isn't in complete darkness) dealing lightning damage to everyone except the kobolds once each round. The more there are kobolds alive, the more it deals damage. Each kobold has mirror image with three illusory kobolds around them.

The mirrors on the walls can be broken, and each broken mirror reduces the number of the illusory kobolds by one for each kobold (alive or not). The images can't be removed by any other means.

The characters would end up in the chamber via trapped teleportation circle, so they can't just ignore the encounter once they've seen it. Once all mirrors are broken, the walls - and the kobolds - shatter into sparkling dust and the PC's can continue whatever they were doing before.

I was planning to include an encounter like this for a future campaign set in Eberron.

The exact number of kobolds is pretty much up to you, but if you have 10 kobolds, it'd look like you were up against 40 kobolds instead! :D

this sounds real fun, though i think this in depth of an encounter i might do in 2-3 more levels, and yeh im currently doing Eberron myself with a little spice of Bloodborne inspiration added to it so something like this can deff fit into that world setting i think.


One that I wanted to run but never quite got to is a James Bond style chase down a ski slope, where the players have to choose between going faster (with higher "control your skiing" DC), going over moguls and such that need a more difficult DC, or taking it slow and safe but letting the pursuing skiing-gnomes-with-lightning-guns catch up. Note: don't bother if one of the characters can upcast Fly to cover everyone.

Another Bond-ish one was the characters hastily boarded an elevated tram and discovered more gnomes were aboard. They had to prevent the ones on the roof from disconnecting their car from the hooks that supported it from the cable; fend off the squad in the next car; and, in this case, realize that the controls had gotten blasted by a lightning gun, and try to repair it before the car went around a curve too fast and jumped off the cable.

This kinda idea reminds me of the Skill challenges 4E had, which i Really loved the Skill challenge idea in general, the hardest part about them was the books never made it very clear how to run them so i always had to wing it when i did mine, but i deff like the idea of more than just "i attack" being used during a combat.


Don't underestimate the effect that simple terrain can have on a fight. Walls, Pillars, piles of rubble, barricades and the like can have a significant impact on the fight. If your encounters have been in 30x30 empty rooms, spice things up.



On a more complicated front, I once did an encounter that took place in a old building during a massive storm. Every turn I destroyed some of the cover. Anything outside cover was difficult terrain, and anybody starting their turn or moving outside cover took damage.

yeh i try to at the very least add environmental objects to add some flavor to combat encounters, unless they are actually in flat plains for what ever reason, but in woods and such i always try to make rucks, rubble, even vines that can trip available for both players and enemys. I just wrote up an encounter where a bunch of kobolds are gonna try to surround the enemy with fallen trees to make it hard for them to run so i'll see how that turns out haha

[Protato]

After LMoP, I plan to have my players go to the city of Neverwinter but outside the gates is a nomadic band of orcs that are having a hard time getting in to sell animal products they've harvested with no paperwork. With that in mind, the players should try to help them get inside in exchange for a cut of the money, a unique item, and possibly some EXP.

[MagneticKitty]

We had an abandoned stronghold taken over by kobolds. There were slats in the wall they fired through. Some were dusted open and you could return fire. Our Warlock melted one shut to prevent that tho. It also served as their tomb when he cast hunger of hadar and slammed the door though.
We had an ambush area where we set up a covered spike pit and tripwire vs a giant troll

[stoutstien]

I had a party have to kite a druken hill gaint out of a village. The gnome ended up riding on his shoulder and convinced the gaint that he was actually his conscience. Ended up doing the party as living seige machine

[Kane0]

Ever left a keg/barrel of alchemist fire lying around during an encounter?

A party's Plan B is always 'apply fire', just throw in one of those and see what happens.

[Finback]

Make the battlefield part of the combat, so to speak. Perhaps it's a mudpool near a volcano - plot out hotspots, and on certain initiative markers (eg 20, 15, 10 and 5) particular ones erupt, hitting anyone within, say, 15ft reach with scalding mud for 1d8 fire damage - this can affect BOTH sides, and leads the players to strategise.
Likewise, make the area part of the strategy - I had players fighting a huge fossil golem in a museum, with big pillars. The golem had a charging attack, so I made it so if it charged and a pillar was in the way, it did damage to the golem - cue the players trying to taunt it into charging them (I treated it as a normal charge, so they had the standard chance to avoid damage, and simply moved them adjacent to the golem as part of it to be fair).
Maybe they're fighting in a factory-like situation and there's conveyor belts and gears (this can still work with square grids). Every X turns, rotate all the "cog" areas 90 degrees, so enemies who were adjacent are now out of range (I would either allow both sides in a melee a chance at an opportunity attack, or neither side gets it (as they try to steady themselves)). This leads to the players also planning ahead - "if I can cross to this point, ride the gear to there, then I'm in range to cast better spells!" etc

[Zertryx]

Make the battlefield part of the combat, so to speak. Perhaps it's a mudpool near a volcano - plot out hotspots, and on certain initiative markers (eg 20, 15, 10 and 5) particular ones erupt, hitting anyone within, say, 15ft reach with scalding mud for 1d8 fire damage - this can affect BOTH sides, and leads the players to strategise.
Likewise, make the area part of the strategy - I had players fighting a huge fossil golem in a museum, with big pillars. The golem had a charging attack, so I made it so if it charged and a pillar was in the way, it did damage to the golem - cue the players trying to taunt it into charging them (I treated it as a normal charge, so they had the standard chance to avoid damage, and simply moved them adjacent to the golem as part of it to be fair).
Maybe they're fighting in a factory-like situation and there's conveyor belts and gears (this can still work with square grids). Every X turns, rotate all the "cog" areas 90 degrees, so enemies who were adjacent are now out of range (I would either allow both sides in a melee a chance at an opportunity attack, or neither side gets it (as they try to steady themselves)). This leads to the players also planning ahead - "if I can cross to this point, ride the gear to there, then I'm in range to cast better spells!" etc


Ohhh i really like the last one there, the rotating floor or something along that line, that deff gave me a few ideas there =]