Help Me Screw With My Players

[Atarax]

They will be traveling in a dark stretch of forest. They'll be harassed by a creature called a Woods Haunt (Creature Collection) while searching for a rare herb. This creature has minor image as a supernatural ability. I'll have it use that to mislead them so that they're walking in circles. But I want to basically harass them and spook them (to play up the haunted forest vibe) for awhile until they spot the thing and fight it.

Any ideas how on illusions I could throw at them?

Given time I could think of things myself. I have no time :/

[Hackulator]

Make them see themselves so they think they are stuck in some sort of weird time/space loop.

It's hard to do right, but separating them can be very effective, especially if you have a good relationship with your group.

Make them see the herb they are searching for but have it dissolve away before they can grab it.

[BowStreetRunner]

One of my favorites is to throw out illusions of the PCs. Seeing themselves - peering out of the shadows before darting off - can be disconcerting on its own. If the party is going in circles and anyone in the group can track, finding tracks of themselves along with images of themselves can lead to all sorts of confusing guesses as to what might be going on.

EDIT: ninja'd by Hackulator

[Demidos]

A great one I saw in a thread but never got a chance to use was an old, run-down house. There's nothing really of import in the house, just a mostly ruined shell with a few rooms. When they keep walking, a half mile later they find the house. The exact same, identical house, with their own tracks disturbing the dust on the floor. No explanation.

Bonus points if they see it as they hike over a hill but when they reach where it should be it isn't there anymore.

[Vizzerdrix]

Maggoty food when they rest.

Missleading or personal signs.

Children trying to claw their way out of small holes, only to be dragged back in by something unseen.

Animals hanging from high branches in nooses.

Wounds on sleeping party members.

[Torpin]

have some small creature follow them for days, it has to be out of its element and faster than them, so like a duck.

[Segev]

Will-o-wisp lights. If they follow it, put it on the wrong path. If they avoid it, put it on the right path. (This is the monster’s strategy, not the DM’s. Don’t retcon the path they’re on based on their choices.)

Heavy fog. Even better if that can be augmented with illusions of the party member ahead of the guy in back turning down a different path to mislead and separate, with that illusory PC vanishing into the fog before the fog vanished on its own. The misled PC should be replaced with a minor image as well, and, when someone looks back to check on him, he gets grabbed by something in the fog and dragged suddenly but violently out of sight.

Repeat, if you like. Cutting ropes tying the group together and creating the illusion of tension in them may be beyond minor image, but I’m sure some creativity could keep them from noticing the tension being gone, assuming they even keep it taut.

Illusion of an animal alive and stalking/avoiding the party that leads them in its flight to a point where they briefly lose sight of it, only to trip over its long-dead corpse.

Similar, but if they come across a dead animal, have it’s obvious zombie stalk them for a bit. Repeat as necessary to make them think something is animating the dead in the woods.

The sound of something moving through the underbrush.

A talking bird that claims to be cursed by hags and has a quest for them. Use this to learn as much of their current quest as possible. If they are to the fake bird’s quest, make it as amusing, frustrating, and pointless as you can.

[daremetoidareyo]

What is this creature's motivation?

[BowStreetRunner]

Just keep in mind that if minor image is your only source of illusion, there are several limitations that will make some of the suggestions above impractical:

Will save if interacted with, so avoid any situation in which the party will actually be interacting with the minor image. This is going to be DM-subjective, but there's a good chance walking around inside an illusory house they are going to interact with it sufficiently to trigger a save.
A character faced with proof that an illusion isn’t real needs no saving throw. So if you have the illusory stuff vanish just before they touch it, this may be obvious enough for the DM to say they realize it's an illusion.
Figments are not personalized - everyone who sees them will see the same thing. So if you want only one person to see something, you need to put it outside line of sight from anyone else in the party.
Figments cannot make something seem to be something else - so you can add things that aren't there, but everything that is there will appear just as it is. So I'm not sure you can actually make someone appear wounded or food appear spoiled. You could probably make maggots appear on the food, but the food itself would still appear normal. And then you don't want them interacting with it, or to have the maggots disappear giving away that they weren't real.
Figments cannot duplicate intelligible speech. Not even talking birds.
Figments cannot support weight. So if a rope goes slack, there isn't anything you can do about it with the minor image.


I still like the idea of leading them in circles and showing images of themselves. If the party gets far enough apart splitting the party by leading them off in different directions. Showing a missing party member snatched by something. Illusions of animals that lead them off to an actual long-dead corpse of that animal. The monster picking where to put the illusions based on how the party reacts - if they keep going toward the illusions leading them on with them, if they avoid the illusions using them to discourage the party from the right path.

There's some good stuff in the suggestions above that could lead to a very fun encounter.

EDIT:
What is this creature's motivation? Method actor! :smalltongue:

[Kayden Prynn]

Gonna be honest, was really expecting this thread to go in a different direction (adversarial DM). Glad I was wrong. Also, now I'm worried about this happening in the campaign I'm playing in, since both my DMs like to throw CC monsters at us.

[Atarax]

What is this creature's motivation?

I'm using the Woods Haunt stats to represent the spirit of a witch who lived in this forest long ago. She was driven off by a unicorn who became the new guardian of this part of the forest. She returned to exact her revenge on the unicorn by cursing the magical fountain at the center. She did so successfully, however she was killed in the process. Now, her spirit has become a part of the cursed forest. She is filled with an undying rage toward intruders (basically anyone).


Gonna be honest, was really expecting this thread to go in a different direction (adversarial DM). Glad I was wrong. Also, now I'm worried about this happening in the campaign I'm playing in, since both my DMs like to throw CC monsters at us.

No, this is absolutely not a killer DM thing. Looking to creep them out and disorient them, not kill them or teach them a lesson.

[Segev]

If the unicorn is still around, illusions of it acting hostile and downright evil will help ensure that visitors don’t trust it.