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DiscipleofBob
2008-08-20, 01:54 PM
This is a thread I'd like to see more of: help constructing dungeons. A well-thought out, thematically appropriate, clever dungeon much more fun than simply here's a room, roll a random encounter/trap. Especially in 4th edition, where environmental terrain is an integral factor in combat.

So, please, anyone who is DMing or trying to build up a dungeon of any kind and would like some suggestions as to clever encounters (combat, puzzle, or otherwise) please post here.

Myself: I'm working on a few possible dungeons for the next session.

1) A sewer network beneath a large city, mostly kept under control, except for the occasional vermin (or even an Otyugh), but also a secret headquarters for the city's undercover guard. Probably used in case the player's do something stupid and get arrested.

2) Perhaps if the PC's decide to help the city guard, they'll get sent on a mission to find and stop a criminal drug ring in the seedier part of the city. Crafty criminal crooks abounds!

3) Given certain events, they might have to infiltrate a military barracks to rescue some tribal cheiftains.

4) (In a hurry to finish here, be more eloquent later.) The next really big, important dungeons will be a series of semi-hollowed out giant trees. Think Tree of Life type thing. Need some nature and plant-based encounters and puzzles for this.

Thanks a bunch. Look forward to helping and getting helped from others soon.

Charity
2008-08-20, 03:34 PM
Can you scope us out with some party levels, and maybe some idea of party composition.

DiscipleofBob
2008-08-20, 05:02 PM
Probably be a good idea. Right now, we have a male dwarven fighter, a male human wizard, a female human rogue, and a female tiefling warlock, all level 4. As for build specifics, the fighter is an axe-wielder and has maxed out his AoO's, the wizard likes to use Sleep (unfortunately, I think he's only used it on fellow PC's and friendly NPC's so far) but is otherwise a long-range blaster. The warlock and rogue are fairly generic as far as builds go and nothing in particular stands out except for their high damage output (which is good considering they're strikers). The four just got done with a mercenary-style job where they ended up killing a necromancer who they learned was being mentally controlled by some outside force. The necromancer's dying words led them on this path to the Red Province of the country.

Along the way, they'll meet a noble and his entourage of guards. The noble aspires to be what an "adventurer" is in his mind, which basically means going around, ordering his guards to do all the dirty work, and claiming all the credit himself. The rogue has some noble blood, so the two of them will already know each other. The noble is arrogant enough that he could get peeved enough to send some of his guards to capture the PC's and bringing them to the nearest town to be punished for "disrespecting a member of higher class." Honestly, if the PC's allow themselves to be captured, they'll just be let go as no such law exists around here and the prince is vastly out of his element. The prince will leave as soon as any battle starts or after the conversation ends, most likely mentioning he's headed south to see a legendary smith.

After this, there will be two roads. One leads to a major city, one of the religious centers of the known world whose entire economy is based almost entirely around tourism and weddings. The city has a suspiciously low crime rate, mostly because the city guard is well-trained and almost always undercover. Criminals who try to assault the city usually just get captured, and if the city guard can't "convince" the criminals to knock it off, they get sent to a city for proper punishment. This lets them avoid any bad reputation as far as law enforcement or criminal activity goes. If the heroes get on the good side of the city guard, they might let the PC's help investigate a small drug ring on the seedier part of town. If they cause trouble, the guard will come down on them full force when they least expect it.

The other road leads to a much smaller town full of prospective blacksmiths, mostly dwarven and dragonborn. If they choose this route, they'll meet the BBEG for the first time (though I doubt they'll recognize him as such) trying to shake down the literal world's greatest weaponsmith for A) a weapon, and B) a record of the locations of his other creations. They might also get some more background information regarding plot stuff here. Other than a severe beating from the BBEG, I don't have any combats planned here.

Both of these cities should (at least I hope) provide several hints to lead north to the forest nation where the elves live. The deal with this forest nation is that the elves, gnolls, and shifters are all warring, nomadic barbarian-esque tribes living in the overgrown remains of the once-great elven empire. There are three "Trees of Life" throughout the forest which provide condensed crystals of magical energy called mana. One is directly controlled by the elves; that one is pure and in working order. If the PC's go there, they'll get captured by xenophobic elves, get questioned about why they have the royal necklace of the king's runaway daughter (who they killed since she was the necromancer's psycho girlfriend), and maybe catch that goblin thief in the Tree of Life (who is trying to retrieve some mana as material components to revive his two friends whom the wizard killed earlier).

I doubt they'll get much farther than that, but if they do, they'll find out that the gnoll and shifter tribes are being possessed by a strange force, and eventually that the other two Trees are being corrupted by some strange, evil, plant force that is the work of one of the BBEG's lieutenants. The two Trees therefore have increasingly difficult nature and plant-based obstacles, as well as possessed gnolls and shifters guarding them, not to mention that scaling the trees is a challenge even when they're in working order.

I think that's all I have in my notes for now.

Charity
2008-08-20, 06:41 PM
Ok so you have no leader/healer type in the party, so I would avoid anything that hits too hard, as they might strugle to find the endurance for facing solo encounters, I would make most of the big encounters elite's with a retenue.


OK I shall just chuck some ideas at you,

The drug cartel are bringing drugs into the city via the sewers perhaps.

Set up some sort of skill challenge to find a 'pusher', follow him back to his home, extort info from him, maybe find secret password or street code or such.

somehow they find their way into the sewers... you are going to need to make these encounters happen in large chambers so maybe the sewer system connects with a natural cave complex/ underground river.. anyhow

Level 4 gives you Visejaw Crocodile's an obvious candidate for an encounter, maybe the drug cartel use them as sentries, maybe they are just an occupational hazard whatever suits you.

Deathjump Spiders are another likely candidate... well if you will flush em down the plughole... but be careful Deathjump Spiders are quite nasty.

Wererats, dire rats and rat swarms of course, can't have a sewer without them, maybe mix em in with the spiders.

Undead of course are another sewer staple, various zombies and wraiths and wights fit the bill, why not have the cave complex stray under the old graveyard that way you can chuck some treasure their way in a mausoleum or two, waves of zombies should be fun for the mage too.

Just to stir it up a bit you could have the drug lords be dealing with Sahuagin whom swim up the underground river from the nearby costal delta (which has suddenly popped into existance) or maybe Troglodites have moved in, or both whatever, you need some aquatics to use the fact that the sewers are mainly water filled, otherwise it'll just be a smelly dungeon, you need to involve the sewer water in the encounters. To really push it home that the waters a danger you could have a sudden downpour with a flash flood in the sewer forcing the party into a race for air scenario..

anyhow plenty to be going on with and they haven't even met the drug cartel yet.