2nd Level Forest Ambush?

[Necrosnoop110]

I am looking to setup a really detailed, really well done, ambush for five 2nd level PCs. This will go down in the middle of a forest between towns. Any suggestions? Tips? Or any really well done pre-made encounters you can recommend?

Been a DM for years and years but never liked how ambushing plays out generally speaking but it is crucial to the story so I'd like to improve things here. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Necro

ETA: More specific details

Game: D&D 5E
Party: 5 PCs (Fighter, Rogue, Barbarian, Paladin, Druid)
Module: Candlekeep Mysteries : Mazfroth's Mighty Digressions
Campaign: Homebrewed (not using standard locations from module)

Ambush: I am hoping to expand this simple adventure and wanted to really bring up the ambush aspect by Mushika the wererat. I am setting the ambush on the way to the town under investigation by the PCs, in the outskirts/forest. This will be the first engagement the PCs have with Muskika and I wanted it to not be lethal but I wanted it to be strong enough that the PCs will dislike Muskika and hopefully have him return as a reoccurring villain. So I want him to be able to escape and pester the PCs again and again.

Any further questions please ask.

[Xervous]

Could you elaborate on what purpose the ambush serves for your story? This reads like “build me a good computer” but we don’t know if you want some minor logic for your Christmas lights, web browsing, media design, or for it to play Jeopardy.

For starters is it supposed to be easy/stressful/lethal?

[Unoriginal]

Could you elaborate on what purpose the ambush serves for your story? This reads like “build me a good computer” but we don’t know if you want some minor logic for your Christmas lights, web browsing, media design, or for it to play Jeopardy.

For starters is it supposed to be easy/stressful/lethal?

Other important questions:

- Do the ambushers need to be or do something specific?

- Who are the PCs in the scenario and what motivates them to be on that forest road rather than taking another path?

[Sorinth]

I'm fond of the old Dryad "kidnapping". Basically they step out from hiding and use Fey Charm. On success they ask the charmed character to leave the rest of the party and head in whatever direction where the Dryad will join them. Then they Tree Stride out of sight. If the players passed the saving throw they lie in wait to try again on the next PC.

When they chase after the charmed PC have the Dryad appear flanked with a couple charmed animals. The dryad tells the rest of the party to stay away and encourages the charmed player to start running, casts Entangle then tree strides away. The charmed animals move to block the players from following. Doesn't have to be a fight to the death the goal is to just buy time to create separation. Wolves/Dire Wolves work really well here since knocking prone helps buy more time.

If the players were travelling for a reason, especially a time sensitive one then this throws a massive wrench into that plan as they will now have to chase after the charmed player. You can use the Chase rules from the DMG or not, you can have the path filled with traps/natural hazards, depending on the dryad they might be intentionally leading the charmed PC into hazards or they can be guiding the charmed PC safely whereas the rest of the party gets hit/delayed by those dangers. Either way be sure to keep everyone at the table involved, so constantly switch between RPing the charmed players interactions with the Dryad and the rest of the party tracking/chasing. If the Dryad is intentionally leading the charmed player into danger it leads to a lot of tension as it should be obvious that if the rest of the party doesn't catch up the charmed player will kill themselves. Also since the Dryad or it's allies aren't technically doing anything harmful the player doesn't get to repeat the save.

[Necrosnoop110]

Thanks for the replies. I have updated the original post with more details. :smile:

[Sorinth]

I'm not familiar with the adventure. But for a wererat ambush on a low level party is inherently very deadly simply because few players will actually be able to damage a wererat.

So to keep it not deadly I would maybe have the players arrive mid ambush. So PCs hear the sounds of battle up ahead and find Muskika and friends are attacking some other group of travellers/caravan. When the PCs make their presence know Muskika will retreat because the odds are no longer in their favour, or Muskika was after a particular item which they acquire either right away or within a round or two.

Have there be a bunch of injured NPCs some of whom have bite marks, at least one of whom should be very sympathetic such as a child. The town is several days away (Possibly because travelling with the injured NPCs slows them down) but a full moon is even closer. There's a priest in town that could save anyone infected so long as they get to town before turning.

[Necrosnoop110]

I'm not familiar with the adventure. But for a wererat ambush on a low level party is inherently very deadly simply because few players will actually be able to damage a wererat.

So to keep it not deadly I would maybe have the players arrive mid ambush. So PCs hear the sounds of battle up ahead and find Muskika and friends are attacking some other group of travellers/caravan. When the PCs make their presence know Muskika will retreat because the odds are no longer in their favour, or Muskika was after a particular item which they acquire either right away or within a round or two.

Have there be a bunch of injured NPCs some of whom have bite marks, at least one of whom should be very sympathetic such as a child. The town is several days away (Possibly because travelling with the injured NPCs slows them down) but a full moon is even closer. There's a priest in town that could save anyone infected so long as they get to town before turning.
Thanks, great ideas. Was thinking that the wererat (despite being very resistant to 2nd level PCs) would be a coward and not like direct combat and have his giant rats and thugs do the dirty work.

[J-H]

2nd level characters are still squishy. I suggest spicing it with some non-lethal elements to reduce the "HP damage" part of the battle.
Have an enemy cast Entangle (but with a low CON save so they fail their Concentration check when the party tries to end the spell, making the PCs feel smart).
Include a few minor traps, maybe just flat-out using the Ranger spell Snare.
I associate rats with poison, so maybe Stinking Cloud?

On a more mundane side, caltrops work.

A scared horse (Intimidate, Fear, damage?) running through the fight could easily force an Athletics check to avoid being knocked prone and taking 1d4 damage, while not being something that'll kill a PC.

[Ugmaro]

The only question I'd ask is if you're dead set on using wererats or if something else can substitute them. I've had a party of 5 2nd lvl adventurers go through a swamp along with 3 lizardmen escorting them (they were going to the lizardman tribe in order to gain some information from the old shaman there, but I digress). Since the swamp trails were quite narrow (mostly 5-10 feet) the perfect ambushing creatures were bullywugs, as they move up to the edge of the water and pounce at the party, which was moving in single file. Since the party had an escort I had to bump up the number of bullywugs to 13 to provide a dangerous encounter and it played out beautifully (I had planned on them being attacked by 8-9 bullywugs when returning from the tribe without the escorts/guides at dusk but since the party took their sweet time doing anything I had to improvise a bit).

Now if you're willing to forget about the wererats and say these are bandits attempting to get into the good graces of Mushika instead (maybe a note found on their bodies confirms this attack isn't as random as it initially seems) you could get something quite similar done. Since you're not limited to monsters you can have some of the bandits attack with ranged weapons (I would say max 4) from a well positioned cliff by the road (high enough that climbing directly up is difficult, maybe DC 14 athletics) while the rest of them charge from the cover of trees on the other side of the path and from the path up ahead, which leads to the cliff. This way you could "surround" the party in an attempt to make them panic a bit (always nice). I'd say the maximum amount of bandits in this case should be 12, unless if you decide to beef them up a bit, in which case you should go with less.

The main things you need to keep in mind if you're doing something like that is that not all of your enemies can go at once (have them come in 2-3 waves where the first wave blocks off escape along with a few shots from the highground while the next waves run in and try to cut the party down - don't be afraid to set the first wave to be about half the bandits while the other bandit groups in regards to initiative are smaller) and since there's a lot of enemies there's a good chance the party will partially or fully detect the enemies. The way I'd do it is to say the 2 party members in the front roll perception checks as they're approaching this location. On anything less than a 5 they are not getting any warning (we're aiming to make this an extremely improbable outcome), on a 5-11 they hear a bird sound that's somehow off (maybe an owl sound in the middle of the day or a lark at night - this is basically the bandits being stupid while signaling each other with their pre-determined signal to get ready to pounce, not considering if that bird is heard at the time of day or whatever else you might think of). If they roll 12-18 they get to hear a hushed whisper from the cliff (which they CAN NOT easily reach from their side of the road, as discussed above) while a 19+ means they can see a weapon glinting from behind a tree (one of the bandits lying in wait to surround them).

Basically what you want is that the party members aren't surprised, since that means they're just gonna get destroyed before even getting a turn. On the other hand you WANT them to suffer a bunch of damage off the bat so they wonder whether or not they can defeat their assailants. Use your judgement on when the last few bandits start running for their lives - maybe the archers escape once most of the meat up front is cut down or maybe if the party manages to climb up the cliff and take out the archers the ones down below start panicking and fleeing. Your possibilites here are near endless but to make an ambush any good it needs to be scary for the party. Bonus points if they KNOW they're walking into an ambush and basically have no easy alternatives! ;)

[Necrosnoop110]

Bonus points if they KNOW they're walking into an ambush and basically have no easy alternatives! ;)

Thanks for the ideas! What is the best way to get the party to know this?

Cheers,
Necro

[Sorinth]

Thanks for the ideas! What is the best way to get the party to know this?

Cheers,
Necro

When describing the path you can straight up say this looks like a perfect spot for an ambush. Or have any roll/ask them what their passive wisdom is. Tell whoever has the highest (Assuming at least 1 did ok) that they get the sensation of being watched.

[Ugmaro]

When describing the path you can straight up say this looks like a perfect spot for an ambush. Or have any roll/ask them what their passive wisdom is. Tell whoever has the highest (Assuming at least 1 did ok) that they get the sensation of being watched.

These also work very well if you're worried your players might not catch the "bird trick" I described above, I completely endorse such a style of DMing. Just make sure they can't simply walk around the ambush location