Unusual lvl 1 encounter help

[DwarfDM]

Hello everybody,

I'm starting a new campaign next week and the players are starting in Waterdeep. I am using a mini Quest to get them out of the city.

Now i'm looking for inspiration for fun small encounters with unusual tactics. Just to get the players from lvl 1 to lvl 2.

For example: a goblin who uses wild animals as a weapon, throwing poisones snakes from the trees onto the PC's.

Does anyone have more fun ideas like this?

[Mordna]

Here's a few ideas:

1. When the party rents a room at the tavern they find there are dormant skelletons already in thier beds. Do they immediatly attack them or try to find a sneaky way around them? Maybe they are lawful and alert the barkeep/towngourd, etc?

2. In the middle of the night an invisible creature cast suggestion on one/more of the adeventurers and if they fail the saving throw they will go outside, cut their hand and smear the blood on a stone/tree. Do the others notice? Will they try to stop him, follow him? Will they investigate the cause?

3. On a dark street the party witnesses a kidnapping and the vitim drops an interesting/valuable item. The kidnappers ride out of town into the wild. Does the party follow, investigate, report? Do they keep the item, sell it, use it or try to figure out who it belongs to?

[Unoriginal]

A kobold engineer who uses their tricks and gizmos to pretend they're a spellcaster, and terrify people to rob them?

[Man_Over_Game]

Goblins hiding in trees, jumping down to flank the party after luring them in with the remnants of a destroyed cart.

Creatures standing on top of a short cliff, throwing rocks and rolling small boulders down. Hope you're good at Mario.

Elf bandits taking out any light sources with ranged attacks, trying to get the players to flee into an ambush point.

A sahuagan (or however you spell it) party casting Silent Image and other illusions to portray a burning creature that's thrashing about on land. As the players are focused on the illusion, the monsters sneak out of the water from behind the players to gank them.

A haunted house is a massive mimic. It's fat and lethargic, and mostly tries to trick people into staying so it can slowly dissolve them. The players enter, and things appear nicer and friendlier the more they stay (with even food already prepared for the players). Secretly start reducing the life of the players for each 10 minutes they're there by 1 HP. The house will leave the doors unlocked until it has suspicion that the players are trying to leave. When the players start attacking, nearby furniture and things fight as small mimics. Doors and the house are vulnerable to fire.

[carrdrivesyou]

1. Kobolds have disguised themselves as halflings (or vice versa) and are terrorizing a small farm village.

2. Several graves have been exhumed, and the deceased are nowhere to be found. A man in dark cloaks has been seen moving around in the dead of night, always escaping the town guard.

3. Rumors of a small group of cultists have spread through the city. Rumor has it that their lair is in a small cave nearby.

I have used all of these to great effect. I hope they are helpful.

[Wildarm]

Hello everybody,

I'm starting a new campaign next week and the players are starting in Waterdeep. I am using a mini Quest to get them out of the city.

Now i'm looking for inspiration for fun small encounters with unusual tactics. Just to get the players from lvl 1 to lvl 2.

For example: a goblin who uses wild animals as a weapon, throwing poisones snakes from the trees onto the PC's.

Does anyone have more fun ideas like this?

Players have to clear out a greenhouse where the water has been tainted somehow. Filled with awakened shrubs/plants and the requirement is they can't damage the building. Players can track the source of the taint to the pumpworks of the building where violet fungus is growing all along the walls and a grey ooze(reskined as something like a baby shambling mound) has taken up residence in one of the watering vats.

Describe the whole place as being overrun with twisted vines and plants. Tactics are that all the creatures are fairly slow moving so the group can avoid them for the most part but have them all pretty well hidden so that ones can jump out at different times or drop on the players from above. Use moving walls of plants/fungus to force the players into certain areas. Think zombie horde but instead with aggressive plants. Fire is very effective but they risk damaging the building if it gets out of hand.

[willdaBEAST]

Combat is a bit tricky at lvl 1, since the PCs are so fragile. I think you're on the right track to come up with something more mechanically interesting.

Something involving different skill challenges is a good way to intro newer players into the game. I like to try to feed specific information depending on PC class (the Druid notices natural things, the wizard magical, etc).

As far as your specific question:

-if you're using a grid, an enemy who uses a massive amount of cute creatures to swarm and block the PCs while attacking them at range. Do they kill the adorable creatures trying to hug them?

-an illusion based opponent with several elements contributing to their disguise: a lit torch, a smoking censure, barking dogs making a lot of noise, etc. The PCs will have a lot of difficulty finding the enemy unless they interact with the environment.

-A large group of refugees are fleeing from something terrible and local authorities are afraid they've been infiltrated by dissidents who want to sneak into the city.

-a local vendor claims to be selling magic apples, the party gets a lead on the orchard in the neighboring countryside. Is everything kosher, or is there a dark twist?

[Man_Over_Game]

For tactical options, it's important to have triggered abilities that can be prevented. A good example are Pack Tactics, which state that the creature has advantage to hit an enemy if an ally is adjacent to the target. By adding this to your monsters, your players have incentive to separate the monsters and take them on 1v1.

To dramatize the tactical advantage of separating them beyond Advantage to hit, make the monster's normal attacks have high accuracy but low damage (+5 to hit, 1d4+1 damage), but can also attempt a Wild Blow, which is a special action that causes -5 to hit and +5 to damage, which they can only do if the attacking creature only has one hostile adjacent to them (making them feel comfortable about going for the kill and attacking recklessly).

Combined, your players have incentive to separate the enemies to prevent Pack Tactics, but only in a way that means that the enemies don't feel comfortable spamming Wild Blow.

[Wildarm]

Another good level 1 challenge is a combined skill challenge.

Present the players with an challenging non-combat situation for example: Alarms are raised - There is fire in the city! Some people are trapped in a burning building!

Let them know this is a skill challenge and the mechanics of it. More important at higher levels but make it clear it's a group effort and they can't just magic their way out of it. Have the group come up with how they are all working together to save people:

- Athletics checks to brake down doors and lift out unconscious survivors
- Con checks to avoid smoke/fire damage
- Persuasion checks to help calm crowds and get help
- Survival checks to aid people in entering a burning building(breathing masks, soaked robes, etc)
- Casting checks to use magic creatively to help people or suppress fires(control flame/water, healing spells, ice/cold cantrips, etc)

Key is to have them work together and feel like they are aiding each other. One person's success can often lead to advantage on the next persons roll. Failures are a failing forward thing... You fail to break down the door on the first attempt but hearing the screams for help inside emboldens you to cover yourself and bash through a partially burnt wall and take some damage.

I usually go around the table twice and tally up the number of successes and see how they do. If successes > failures they complete their goal and are praised as heroes. Less and they have some consequences. Perhaps they couldn't save everyone. Maybe they barely do but some people still got inadvertently hurt from their actions or they damaged the property more than needed.