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View Full Version : Ideas for messing with/playing jokes on your players?



newbDM
2008-12-17, 07:35 AM
I just got an unusual idea to mess with a group of players, so I want to know what mean (yet fun spirited) things you guys have done or planned.


1. The players just got done dungeon crawling in a giant forgotten dwarven ruined stronghold very deep underground below a huge solid mountain. As they are about to leave they notice a secret compartment in a wall. It leads to a small narrow tunnel even tight for a dwarf that goes on quite a while deeper into the mountain. Eventually they see a light at the other end, and emerge into a giant chamber about 1000ft x 500ft. At the chamber's center stands an enormous solid statue of Moradin standing 400ft tall and 50ft wide made out off 100% pure adamantine. On it's head (at the very top) is embedded a giant crown forged of solid gold with countless gems fused into it.

Also, the tide waters that submerge the city for a hundred and five years are about to rise again in around two hours.

Malacode
2008-12-17, 07:47 AM
This isn't quite what you mean, I guess, but...
In my next campaign, the BBEG is a Necromancer/Transmuter. They come across him in the first dungeon they enter, and probably will all end up grappled by his multilimbed flesh golem minions. This the opening line in his monologue:
How do you do, I
See you've met, my
Faithfull... Handyman

Rocky Horror FTW

Another_Poet
2008-12-17, 09:54 AM
Get a stack of ery large books, like a set of encyclopedias, and leave them strewn about your gaming table.

When the players show up, one of them will probably start to clear off the table so they can set up their stuff. At this point tell them, "Actually could you leave those there? I need to use them as mini's for some of the monsters tonight."

hehehehehehe

valadil
2008-12-17, 11:45 AM
I pass notes with out of game instructions for players to mess with each other. My favorite is "look at $powergamer until he notices you, then look back and me and nod." $powergamer has since tried to ban note passing at the table.

Telonius
2008-12-17, 11:51 AM
I just got an unusual idea to mess with a group of players, so I want to know what mean (yet fun spirited) things you guys have done or planned.


1. The players just got done dungeon crawling in a giant forgotten dwarven ruined stronghold very deep underground below a huge solid mountain. As they are about to leave they notice a secret compartment in a wall. It leads to a small narrow tunnel even tight for a dwarf that goes on quite a while deeper into the mountain. Eventually they see a light at the other end, and emerge into a giant chamber about 1000ft x 500ft. At the chamber's center stands an enormous solid statue of Moradin standing 400ft tall and 50ft wide made out off 100% pure adamantine. On it's head (at the very top) is embedded a giant crown forged of solid gold with countless gems fused into it.

Also, the tide waters that submerge the city for a hundred and five years are about to rise again in around two hours.

Two days later, they return with adamantine saws and several helms of underwater action ... :smallyuk:

Shpadoinkle
2008-12-17, 11:54 AM
I ran a BESM game for my sister and her fiancee this summer. In one session they were investigating a large old house that was supposedly haunted, and came accross a fireplace. There was nothing in it, but they checked it out anyway, and off the top of my head I told them "Okay, a fat man in a red suit..."

evisiron
2008-12-17, 11:55 AM
Hehe, a dungeon, with 4 pieces of ancient arcane pieces of equipment (Gloves, boots, goggles, belt) in themed areas guarded by numerous monsters and traps. It is never questioned why this dungeon is here (it was found by accident)

Of course, the essence of an evil Titan was trapped in these pieces and guarded/trapped to ensure that no-one would bring the pieces together an release this evil once again upon the world.

One loot fueled dungeon crawl later and the party released this evil upon the world. :smallamused:

It worked well since it provided motivation to track this guy down and defeat him (their fault and he stole their loot!).

esorscher
2008-12-17, 11:57 AM
I got this from dndadventure.com

Put a 10 x 10 trap door in the dungeon, with a pull handle and rope attached to it, the rope attached to a nail in the floor away from the trap door. Let the PC's pull on the handle for a while, then have the trap door drop in, revealing a big monster.

The master of the dungeon keeps the monster there, places a bunch of meat on the trap door, then pulls the rope to make the handle rattle. The monster activates a button, which drops the trap door and meat, and then the master pulls it closed using the rope and handle.

When the PCs rattle the handle trying to pull the trap door open, the monster thinks there is food. When there is no food, only PCs, he gets angry and attacks them.

It doesn't detect as a trap, since it isn't.

I heard this on the forums the other day. The party fights a shapeshifter, and when the shapeshifter is down to low health, it runs into the other room, shifts into a helpless, bound young girl. When the party comes in, she begs and pleads, saying she's a captive of the shapeshifter.

The party does what they do with NPCs--treats her wounds, maybe, frees her, has her tag along. Then, when they're sleeping, the shapeshifter kills them.

mikej
2008-12-17, 12:05 PM
Not soo much a joke but a lesson to my players that suspect easy mindless battles.

I made my players face off against balefull polymorphed ( great wyrm red dragon ) Vorpal Bunny, legends say it could cut the greatest warriors head off in one bite. Note this wasn't a real threat just a normal bunny, any gather information check could tell that this was just a legend.

My players had a real annoying habit of freaking out if the monsters ambushed them, always arguing that they should have noticed it which was a load of crap since they like the buff heavy before a fight. Soo they reached the bunny in the desert, surprised that the little creature didn't open its small mouth to release a river of fire. soo they all spent like 10 rounds buffing each other suspecting a hard fight. Now eventually the Cleric took the initiative to attack it first...the bunny dead in one shot. The moment was priceless and I still remembere there faces.

chiasaur11
2008-12-17, 12:12 PM
I got this from dndadventure.com

Put a 10 x 10 trap door in the dungeon, with a pull handle and rope attached to it, the rope attached to a nail in the floor away from the trap door. Let the PC's pull on the handle for a while, then have the trap door drop in, revealing a big monster.

The master of the dungeon keeps the monster there, places a bunch of meat on the trap door, then pulls the rope to make the handle rattle. The monster activates a button, which drops the trap door and meat, and then the master pulls it closed using the rope and handle.

When the PCs rattle the handle trying to pull the trap door open, the monster thinks there is food. When there is no food, only PCs, he gets angry and attacks them.

It doesn't detect as a trap, since it isn't.

I heard this on the forums the other day. The party fights a shapeshifter, and when the shapeshifter is down to low health, it runs into the other room, shifts into a helpless, bound young girl. When the party comes in, she begs and pleads, saying she's a captive of the shapeshifter.

The party does what they do with NPCs--treats her wounds, maybe, frees her, has her tag along. Then, when they're sleeping, the shapeshifter kills them.

Maybe magic wouldn't detect the trap, but I see no reason a rogue's general trapfinding knowhow wouldn't smell something rotten in the land of Denmark. I mean, if it covers everything from magic circles to hidden pits, a trapdoor should be a gimmee.

And if you think the standard PC behavior towards NPCs is anything other than "Kill, then loot"...

Well, you don't know PCs.

esorscher
2008-12-17, 12:26 PM
Maybe magic wouldn't detect the trap, but I see no reason a rogue's general trapfinding knowhow wouldn't smell something rotten in the land of Denmark. I mean, if it covers everything from magic circles to hidden pits, a trapdoor should be a gimmee.

And if you think the standard PC behavior towards NPCs is anything other than "Kill, then loot"...

Well, you don't know PCs.

Except that it isn't a trap. All the rogue would figure out is that its a trap door, since "trapfinding" isn't applicable to non-traps. I mean, you could make the argument, but I'm the DM. :D

As for the PC-NPC dynamic, I find it most useful to have all the NPCs have rich fathers.

OverdrivePrime
2008-12-17, 12:27 PM
Way back in the day I was running an AD&D 2nd edition campaign on my first sandbox world. I had put some hints around that there was a tremendous battle a thousand years ago where this death knight and his undead army had rampaged across the country side until they were finally imprisioned in an obsidian tomb.

In this region there was a huge plateau that everyone avoided because it was rumored to be where the undead army was imprisoned. It was terribly dusty, windy as heck, and generally barren and forbidding up on the plateau.

The characters, being adventurers, wanted to find out more and so soon enough they were in the town nearest to the forbidden plateau. In the inn, there was a bard singing a song about it, and they stayed to listen. I had typed out the lyrics to the song Plateau, (http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/m/meat_puppets/plateau.html)originally by the Meat Puppets, later covered excellently by Nirvana. With the song playing in the background, the players noticed that I had changed some of the words - "Talk Show Hosts" was now "Undead Hosts" and I changed some of the locations to match those in my game.

Tending toward more of a kick-in the door style of play, this group soon found itself scaling the hellishly difficult to climb sides of the plateau. Once up there they found an extremely dusty and flat area with a powerful wind and a necromantic chill in the air. There was also a bucket with a mop sticking out of it and a small book.

The party's rogue, being a clown, picks up the mop and starts scrubbing the ground of the plateau. He is suddenly grinning like a fool (failing his save vs. rods) and continues to mop the ground. His companions kindly begin mocking him, but get a little nervous when the notice that as he's mopping, he's revealing a really smooth block of obsidian. Well, he's mopping away, and cannot for the life of him stop mopping or wipe the grin off of his face.

In the mean time, the party wizard walks over and picks up the book. He discovers that it contains the instructions on how to summon a Phoenix, and happily begins transcribing that to his spellbook. Just as he finishes (he had a magic pen which cut the time of scribing spells down to 10%), the sun comes out from behind the clouds and glints off of the obsidian on the plateau. Suddenly, all of the PCs find themselves with mops in hand and huge grins on their faces (a series of spectacularly failed saves vs rods). In the back of their heads, they hear a verse of the song, "When you've finished with the mop then you can stop / And look at what you've done /
The plateau's clean, no dirt to be seen /And the work it was fun".

So, their characters slaved away for the rest of the day, mopping the entire plateau free of dust and grime. Once done, they were standing atop a glittering sheet of pure obsidian.

Finally released from the controlling spell, and rubbing jaw muscles sore from grinning all day, they broke out rations and water atop the plateau. As they were finishing their meal, the moon rose and it's light seemed to be absorbed by the obsidian. There was a shudder and a surge of magic and finally a mind-shattering wail of anguish - and then thousands and thousands of undead soldiers began to rise up from the obsidian. Directly in front of the characters rose the leader of the undead host - a death knight mounted atop a large dracolich.

Sadly, the characters didn't heed the words of the song. They attempted to fight for several punishing rounds. The rogue and two of the warriors were near death when the bard finally realized the significance of the book. "The book!" she shouted to the wizard, "Summon the phoenix!"

The wizard, with a sky-high intelligence, stopped calling down spell after useless high-level spell against the undead and instead broke out the book and began rapidly reading.

With the characters on the ropes, a DM-special phoenix finally appeared and the book burned up with a puff. With a wrathful scream, the phoenix expanded to envelop the undead host and then immolated - taking the whole army with it and leaving behind a golden egg.


It was a well-remembered night, but to this day (14 years later) my friends still hate the idea of mopping anything. :smallbiggrin:

dbmeboy
2008-12-17, 12:27 PM
And if you think the standard PC behavior towards NPCs is anything other than "Kill, then loot"...

Well, you don't know PCs.

Actually, believe it or not my players tried to negotiate with a couple of Dragonborn guards the other day. It didn't quite work out, and then they regretted sending the (1st level) party wizard to negotiate because he had the best diplomacy.

Yakk
2008-12-17, 12:38 PM
Except that it isn't a trap. All the rogue would figure out is that its a trap door, since "trapfinding" isn't applicable to non-traps. I mean, you could make the argument, but I'm the DM. :D
No, they are the players. A DM is someone that players play with, and let them run the world.

May you have the players you deserve.

Lappy9000
2008-12-17, 12:45 PM
Create a villain that is a Changling Druid. Possibly a Doppleganger Druid.

Hilarity shall ensue as the players fear every Humanoid/Animal/Elemental/Magical Animal as it may be the disguise of their nemesis. For maximum paranoia, make said evildoer a complete and total badass who is always a step ahead of the party.

esorscher
2008-12-17, 12:52 PM
No, they are the players. A DM is someone that players play with, and let them run the world.

May you have the players you deserve.

I'm not going to argue with you, I'm invoking the standard of "If it's meant to happen, the DM will make it happen." And in the case in point, the party was meant to fight the monster in the pit, otherwise it wouldn't have been a CR appropriate adventure.

Ent
2008-12-17, 12:58 PM
Actually, believe it or not my players tried to negotiate with a couple of Dragonborn guards the other day. It didn't quite work out, and then they regretted sending the (1st level) party wizard to negotiate because he had the best diplomacy.

No one should ever try diplomacy... alone.

I had a witch abducting children from a town, hiding in a spooky house (off in the woods, of course) full of strange, jet-black goblins. The PCs arrive, bust in the door, and search (read slaughter goblins) up and down till they eventually find the witch in the basement, in the middle of a ritual. She's surrounded by mean, grinning goblins and the players get close just in time to witness a small child being dropped into a cauldron and clawing out with oily, black skin, pointed features and a hungry looking smile.

The reaction was priceless, especially thanks to the one player who decided to mutilate some of the goblins earlier.

t_catt11
2008-12-17, 01:14 PM
No one should ever try diplomacy... alone.

I had a witch abducting children from a town, hiding in a spooky house (off in the woods, of course) full of strange, jet-black goblins. The PCs arrive, bust in the door, and search (read slaughter goblins) up and down till they eventually find the witch in the basement, in the middle of a ritual. She's surrounded by mean, grinning goblins and the players get close just in time to witness a small child being dropped into a cauldron and clawing out with oily, black skin, pointed features and a hungry looking smile.

The reaction was priceless, especially thanks to the one player who decided to mutilate some of the goblins earlier.

Oh, Ent... that is PRICELESS! :smallbiggrin: Can I please please PLEASE rip you off and use this encounter?

Ent
2008-12-17, 01:17 PM
Oh, Ent... that is PRICELESS! :smallbiggrin: Can I please please PLEASE rip you off and use this encounter?

You have my express and written consent.

She was feeding the children tons of sweets to sustain them until their turn in the ritual, if that helps.:smallsmile:

t_catt11
2008-12-17, 01:20 PM
You have my express and written consent.

She was feeding the children tons of sweets to sustain them until their turn in the ritual, if that helps.:smallsmile:


That is just TOO awesome. The old "witch kidnapping children" spiel, but twisted horribly... makes me want to start a new PBP game and beg for a paladin in the party, just to cause said paladin nightmares.

Tacoma
2008-12-17, 01:29 PM
"You enter the house. There are some goblins standing around in the next room lounging around. They don't seem to notice you yet."

Slaughter ensues.

Witch mentions later how useful Silent Image can be in disguising the children ...

Kesnit
2008-12-17, 01:31 PM
That is just TOO awesome. The old "witch kidnapping children" spiel, but twisted horribly... makes me want to start a new PBP game and beg for a paladin in the party, just to cause said paladin nightmares.

*Making note of the screen name and another note never to play a Paladin.*

Yukitsu
2008-12-17, 01:39 PM
My favourite, and the reason I'm banned from taking illusions, invisible spell and DMing:

Take a focused illusionist NPC with the shadow and insidious casting feats, and invisible spell metamagic. Take shadowcrafter, and the feat to get your shadow conjurations up to 100% real. Next, shadow conjure invisible, non-real walls that people can bump into. Then do visible shadow conjured walls. Mix these up with real invisible walls, fake visible walls, and fake invisible walls cast from a wand. All around the PCs house, as a massive, box like 3D maze around his house. If you have the resources, build under the house as well. Especially fun if the PC is a diviner and you dimension locked the place.

On a note of effects, see invisible requires a caster level to work on anything, and will reveal all of the invisible illusory walls. True sight fails on a failed caster level check, and fails to see anything but the invisible real walls, but doesn't prevent you from bumping into the invisible non real walls that you can no longer see, and also causes you to bump into the visible shadow walls, which true sight prevents you from seeing.

Prometheus
2008-12-17, 01:42 PM
When the players entered a marketplace island town, I had them harassed by various people selling things. Someone sold the monk "energy balm" and all it does is make your skin tingle a little. Someone sold the fighter and the druid "the island's best fish, the best fish of your life" which they later discovered to be acquired via the black-market harvesting of mermaids for their meat on the part of the neighboring ogres.

There is a down known for being strict and puritanical, especially when it comes to spreading "spurious rumors". Well of course the PCs make a V-line straight for the spurious rumors and use it as a launching point for a quest. Turns out that they really are just spurious rumors, and the town has this policy for a reason.

Kris Strife
2008-12-17, 01:53 PM
That is just TOO awesome. The old "witch kidnapping children" spiel, but twisted horribly... makes me want to start a new PBP game and beg for a paladin in the party, just to cause said paladin nightmares.

*makes note of the screen name and another to never play with*

Don't get me wrong, I have no problem messing with PCs. I've had mine get arrested, get caught looting a castle the good guys were using for storage, etc. However, there is a line between funny and ***hat.

Ent
2008-12-17, 02:20 PM
*makes note of the screen name and another to never play with*

Don't get me wrong, I have no problem messing with PCs. I've had mine get arrested, get caught looting a castle the good guys were using for storage, etc. However, there is a line between funny and ***hat.

One man's scary is another man's "***hat"?

Do your players actually get scared when you throw them in the ol' town holding cell for the tenth time?

Kris Strife
2008-12-17, 02:28 PM
One man's scary is another man's "***hat"?

Do your players actually get scared when you throw them in the ol' town holding cell for the tenth time?

Scary? Setting up an entire plotline just to make the paladin fall/nearly fall is scary?

MammonAzrael
2008-12-17, 02:35 PM
I had an old DM that loved this one.

Your players head to a dungeon, and the first door is locked tightly, with some simple riddle or trick to open it. Throughout the dungeon they'll come across several more large, imposing doors, that are notably different and grander from most doors in the place. All of them are trapped/locked and require a simple puzzle to be solved.

Then they come to another room with one of these doors on the other end up some stairs. In the floor are six stone pillars, about three feet tall. Three are depressed about a foot into the ground, three aren't. Lining the wall are six sarcophagi, standing on end. The clear intent to to depress all six pillars to unlock the door and continue on.

When the fist pillar is depressed, the way they came from is slammed closed (by a door, slab of stone, whatever), and one of the depressed pillars rises up. And then a (CR appropriate) undead spawns from the sarcophagi for each pillar that isn't depressed. The pillars go up and down like a game of Lights Out (http://www.whitman.edu/mathematics/lights_out/). Each time a pillar is depressed or raised more undead spawn. If the players get all the pillars depressed or raised, the way behind them is unlocked and they can retreat.

The trick? The large imposing doors were never locked in the first place. If they had just tried to open the door before messing the the pillars...:smallbiggrin:

(Alternatively, depending on your players, you can start the door locked, and then have it unlock as soon as the first pillar is depressed/raised.)

Tacoma
2008-12-17, 05:44 PM
Early in my D&D playing days I played a Halfling Thief who had a lot of points in Find/Remove Traps and Open Locks.

And I would constantly forget to check the door to see if it was locked after checking for traps. I kept locking doors that were unlocked. DM couldn't stop giggling. I had this mental block for like three sessions.

And then I got knocked out and they put me in a bag of holding for safe-keeping thinking I was dead. Which killed me when I ran out of air. FUN TAIMS!

newbDM
2008-12-17, 06:40 PM
Two days later, they return with adamantine saws and several helms of underwater action ... :smallyuk:

I run very low-magic. :smallbiggrin:

Tacoma
2008-12-17, 06:48 PM
I run very low-magic. :smallbiggrin:

They'd just have to fill the cavern with air somehow. Maybe bag by bag? Is water-breathing spell out?

newbDM
2008-12-17, 07:01 PM
Way back in the day I was running an AD&D 2nd edition campaign on my first sandbox world. I had put some hints around that there was a tremendous battle a thousand years ago where this death knight and his undead army had rampaged across the country side until they were finally imprisioned in an obsidian tomb.

In this region there was a huge plateau that everyone avoided because it was rumored to be where the undead army was imprisoned. It was terribly dusty, windy as heck, and generally barren and forbidding up on the plateau.

The characters, being adventurers, wanted to find out more and so soon enough they were in the town nearest to the forbidden plateau. In the inn, there was a bard singing a song about it, and they stayed to listen. I had typed out the lyrics to the song Plateau, (http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/m/meat_puppets/plateau.html)originally by the Meat Puppets, later covered excellently by Nirvana. With the song playing in the background, the players noticed that I had changed some of the words - "Talk Show Hosts" was now "Undead Hosts" and I changed some of the locations to match those in my game.

Tending toward more of a kick-in the door style of play, this group soon found itself scaling the hellishly difficult to climb sides of the plateau. Once up there they found an extremely dusty and flat area with a powerful wind and a necromantic chill in the air. There was also a bucket with a mop sticking out of it and a small book.

The party's rogue, being a clown, picks up the mop and starts scrubbing the ground of the plateau. He is suddenly grinning like a fool (failing his save vs. rods) and continues to mop the ground. His companions kindly begin mocking him, but get a little nervous when the notice that as he's mopping, he's revealing a really smooth block of obsidian. Well, he's mopping away, and cannot for the life of him stop mopping or wipe the grin off of his face.

In the mean time, the party wizard walks over and picks up the book. He discovers that it contains the instructions on how to summon a Phoenix, and happily begins transcribing that to his spellbook. Just as he finishes (he had a magic pen which cut the time of scribing spells down to 10%), the sun comes out from behind the clouds and glints off of the obsidian on the plateau. Suddenly, all of the PCs find themselves with mops in hand and huge grins on their faces (a series of spectacularly failed saves vs rods). In the back of their heads, they hear a verse of the song, "When you've finished with the mop then you can stop / And look at what you've done /
The plateau's clean, no dirt to be seen /And the work it was fun".

So, their characters slaved away for the rest of the day, mopping the entire plateau free of dust and grime. Once done, they were standing atop a glittering sheet of pure obsidian.

Finally released from the controlling spell, and rubbing jaw muscles sore from grinning all day, they broke out rations and water atop the plateau. As they were finishing their meal, the moon rose and it's light seemed to be absorbed by the obsidian. There was a shudder and a surge of magic and finally a mind-shattering wail of anguish - and then thousands and thousands of undead soldiers began to rise up from the obsidian. Directly in front of the characters rose the leader of the undead host - a death knight mounted atop a large dracolich.

Sadly, the characters didn't heed the words of the song. They attempted to fight for several punishing rounds. The rogue and two of the warriors were near death when the bard finally realized the significance of the book. "The book!" she shouted to the wizard, "Summon the phoenix!"

The wizard, with a sky-high intelligence, stopped calling down spell after useless high-level spell against the undead and instead broke out the book and began rapidly reading.

With the characters on the ropes, a DM-special phoenix finally appeared and the book burned up with a puff. With a wrathful scream, the phoenix expanded to envelop the undead host and then immolated - taking the whole army with it and leaving behind a golden egg.


It was a well-remembered night, but to this day (14 years later) my friends still hate the idea of mopping anything. :smallbiggrin:

Dude, that is an amazing plot. Simply awesome!

May I please flat out steal it for a location on my sandbox world?

I am sure I can convert it to 3.5. :smallbiggrin:

Tacoma
2008-12-17, 07:15 PM
It's virtually rule-less. It's almost 3.5E already.

newbDM
2008-12-17, 07:33 PM
They'd just have to fill the cavern with air somehow. Maybe bag by bag? Is water-breathing spell out?

Basically anything more than an adept is out.



It's virtually rule-less. It's almost 3.5E already.

Well, I am just confused as to what a "save vs. rod" is.

Tacoma
2008-12-17, 07:39 PM
Basic D&D had saving throws all jumbled up. Like a save vs. rods. And another save vs. Death magic and wands. It really didn't make sense.

AD&D had saves that kind of fit into "biological, dodge, misc." categories. But really they should have simplified them down from 5 save types. And they were organized by attack source, such as "breath weapon" or "poison".

Then 3E did pretty much the minimum for defenses with 3 saves grouped logically by defensive quality, "fortitude" or "reflex".

Then 4E did some things. And the other kids were like
OOOoOO! Oh no he di-ent!

But realy they all worked. Except Basic. That was just weird.

(Halfling was your CLASS, man! Insanity!)

MorhgorRB
2008-12-17, 07:42 PM
Tired of having to scale a Godslaying sword down? Or want your warrior/fighter to regret 'fufilling an ancient vision'?

Give the old civilization a -real- reason to have put a sword into stone!

A singing soulbound adamanite sword!

The entire blade has to be free in order to sing, and it must be encased within stone to cease it's constant racket. Bad luck having pulled it out? You bet! It's bound to you for eternity. There's a reason it took 8 people to get it in there, and the king of old had to die just to get rid of it. What are you going to do? Hope you have a cleric.

Alternatively, and a quite unimaginative choice :

Darkmantles and Drow Shadowdancers. I think you can see where that's going.

Tacoma
2008-12-17, 07:44 PM
Tired of having to scale a Godslaying sword down? Or want your warrior/fighter to regret 'fufilling an ancient vision'?

Give the old civilization a -real- reason to have put a sword into stone!

A singing soulbound adamanite sword!

The entire blade has to be free in order to sing, and it must be encased within stone to cease it's constant racket. Bad luck having pulled it out? You bet! It's bound to you for eternity. There's a reason it took 8 people to get it in there, and the king of old had to die just to get rid of it. What are you going to do? Hope you have a cleric.

Alternatively, and a quite unimaginative choice :

Darkmantles and Drow Shadowdancers. I think you can see where that's going.


I'd prefer to make the stone it's stuck in something interesting.

A slain regenerating monster?
A powerful Giant's throwing weapon?
A very inconvenient yet magical sheath?

newbDM
2008-12-17, 08:36 PM
Tired of having to scale a Godslaying sword down? Or want your warrior/fighter to regret 'fufilling an ancient vision'?

Give the old civilization a -real- reason to have put a sword into stone!

A singing soulbound adamanite sword!

The entire blade has to be free in order to sing, and it must be encased within stone to cease it's constant racket. Bad luck having pulled it out? You bet! It's bound to you for eternity. There's a reason it took 8 people to get it in there, and the king of old had to die just to get rid of it. What are you going to do? Hope you have a cleric.


Like THIS (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=6u8wBfDtZkE)? :smallbiggrin:




Alternatively, and a quite unimaginative choice :

Darkmantles and Drow Shadowdancers. I think you can see where that's going.

Sorry, not quite.

TheCountAlucard
2008-12-17, 09:25 PM
No one should ever try diplomacy... alone.

That's why in the Star Wars d20 game I'm playing in, my Twi'lek character asks the Mandalorian PC to come with him when he goes to negotiate...

firgadin
2008-12-17, 09:56 PM
I don't know if this would work, but have an NPC bard cast a Magic Mouth on a Rogue's back end constantly saying "Kick Me!"

newbDM
2008-12-18, 12:31 PM
Basic D&D had saving throws all jumbled up. Like a save vs. rods. And another save vs. Death magic and wands. It really didn't make sense.

AD&D had saves that kind of fit into "biological, dodge, misc." categories. But really they should have simplified them down from 5 save types. And they were organized by attack source, such as "breath weapon" or "poison".

Then 3E did pretty much the minimum for defenses with 3 saves grouped logically by defensive quality, "fortitude" or "reflex".

Then 4E did some things. And the other kids were like
OOOoOO! Oh no he di-ent!

But realy they all worked. Except Basic. That was just weird.

(Halfling was your CLASS, man! Insanity!)

Thank you for the information. Much appreciated.

So what 3.x power/spell would you suggest for this? Would a high DC Suggestion be appropriate?

Mina Kobold
2008-12-18, 03:52 PM
Maybe magic wouldn't detect the trap, but I see no reason a rogue's general trapfinding knowhow wouldn't smell something rotten in the land of Denmark..

:furious:Stop mocking my country, here's not rotten, our culture is older than most other, we are friendlier than them too, so SHUT UP:annoyed:

If you do this again I'm afraid I would have to tell the moderators and get you attacked for it.:annoyed:

Anyway our DM once made an NPC named Paladin wih a lamp. We bought it and got an annoying spirit wich best trick was to make a butterfly and fart (we trapped him in a stone for 3 days and gave him to the innkeeper)

Allerdyce
2008-12-18, 04:44 PM
On the off chance that that wasn't a joke, he was trying to quote Hamlet, specifically "There's something rotten in the state of Denmark" in regards to, in the play, a conspiracy brewing in the country, not a disparaging remark.

In keeping with the thread, our DM likes to drop us in water. A lot. It's ridiculous how often it comes up, sometimes. Once, I fell into a river inside of a glacier. I have no idea how that worked even now.

firgadin
2008-12-18, 10:24 PM
Make the Lich's phylactery the front doorhandle of the dungeon it's at.

Epic_Wizard
2008-12-18, 11:20 PM
My favourite, and the reason I'm banned from taking illusions, invisible spell and DMing:

Take a focused illusionist NPC with the shadow and insidious casting feats, and invisible spell metamagic. Take shadowcrafter, and the feat to get your shadow conjurations up to 100% real. Next, shadow conjure invisible, non-real walls that people can bump into. Then do visible shadow conjured walls. Mix these up with real invisible walls, fake visible walls, and fake invisible walls cast from a wand. All around the PCs house, as a massive, box like 3D maze around his house. If you have the resources, build under the house as well. Especially fun if the PC is a diviner and you dimension locked the place.

On a note of effects, see invisible requires a caster level to work on anything, and will reveal all of the invisible illusory walls. True sight fails on a failed caster level check, and fails to see anything but the invisible real walls, but doesn't prevent you from bumping into the invisible non real walls that you can no longer see, and also causes you to bump into the visible shadow walls, which true sight prevents you from seeing.

Greater Arcane Sight would get you out of this though :smallbiggrin:

Dienekes
2008-12-19, 12:25 AM
Make the big bad of the entire dungeon the apparently crazy hermit telling them not to go into the dungeon in the very first room.

Yukitsu
2008-12-19, 12:29 AM
Greater Arcane Sight would get you out of this though :smallbiggrin:

Greater arcane sight requires a caster level check opposed to the person that made the walls, since they took insidious casting. :smalltongue: Plus every wall has the same aura. Strong illusion. :smalltongue:

Malacode
2008-12-19, 01:49 AM
I'm stealing that wall trick, it's awesome. As long as you don't mind, of course :smallsmile:

One of the tricks I've had a DM drop on us was a Young Adult red dragon magically disguised as a great wyrm. We were too low a level to tell that it was an illusion, and were ridiculously scared when we realised we couldn't escape. Great times

Dogmantra
2008-12-19, 05:34 AM
Make the Lich's phylactery the front doorhandle of the dungeon it's at.

Alternatively, make the Lich's Phylactery a cake.
"You eat the cake. As it enters your stomach, you have a strange feeling, as if you just ingested someone's soul."

mikej
2008-12-19, 05:43 AM
Make the Lich's phylactery the front doorhandle of the dungeon it's at.

Probally a bad idea since most PCs idea ( assuming if the door is locked ) is to bash it open with force.

My players like to get the shiny cool toys from whatever splatbooks, soo I make the Lich's phylactery that item. Then they wonder why they can't seem to kill the Lich. Another good one is make it into a simple gold piece, once they buy something and its enters the currency system...good luck finding it.

Sstoopidtallkid
2008-12-19, 05:46 AM
Probally a bad idea since most PCs idea ( assuming if the door is locked ) is to bash it open with force.

My players like to get the shiny cool toys from whatever splatbooks, soo I make the Lich's phylactery that item. Then they wonder why they can't seem to kill the Lich. Another good one is make it into a simple gold piece, once they buy something and its enters the currency system...good luck finding it.The problem with that is Divinations. By the time the players are facing a Lich, they are going to have 7th level spells. They can find anything.

Which is why I always wanted to make a team of Liches who are each other's Phylacteries. The players have to kill all of them at once, or one of them will regenerate and they'll all come back with a vengeance.

mikej
2008-12-19, 05:53 AM
Which is why I always wanted to make a team of Liches who are each other's Phylacteries. The players have to kill all of them at once, or one of them will regenerate and they'll all come back with a vengeance.

Wow thats pretty brilliant, I may steal that for another campaign.

Kesnit
2008-12-19, 07:20 AM
Which is why I always wanted to make a team of Liches who are each other's Phylacteries. The players have to kill all of them at once, or one of them will regenerate and they'll all come back with a vengeance.

Knowing where the coin is isn't going to do them any good if (1) they don't know exactly where that place is ("Well, it looks like a market square. The current holder is using it to buy some clothes from a stall.") or (2) they know where it is, but it's a long way away and by the time they get there, the coin could be elsewhere.

Kurald Galain
2008-12-19, 07:52 AM
In 4E, give a low-heroic-level party possession of an Astral Diamond. It'll take them forever to find anyone who has sufficient change for that. It's so expensive that no NPC can afford it... for the first dozen levels or so.

daggaz
2008-12-19, 07:59 AM
:furious:Stop mocking my country, here's not rotten, our culture is older than most other, we are friendlier than them too, so SHUT UP:annoyed:

If you do this again I'm afraid I would have to tell the moderators and get you attacked for it.:annoyed:

Seriøst mand? Er du lige født ti år, eller er du virkelig bare så sårbare? I hvert fald, er det ikke en slag mod Danmark, da det er en direkte og meget beromte quote fra Shakespeare's "Hamlet," hvilke skete i Danmark, som du sikkert ville have vidst, bare du havde læst historien.

Og så vil jeg gerne bede dig om, at klap i. Udtaleser som dine gør langt mere, til at skade vores ry i omverdenen, end noget der var skrevet i denne tråd. Seriøst, hvordan ka' du med den ene arrogante hånd, siger at danskere er bedre end andre, og så med den anden råber af folk til at "Shut Up," bare fordi du tydeligt ikke kunne forstå, hvad der er blevet sagt??! Bare gør os alle en kæmpe tjeneste, og hold din kæft. Din uviden og taktløs angreb gør mig syg. :smallfurious:

vegetalss4
2008-12-19, 08:47 AM
seriously man? are you just born ten years old, or are you just so vulnerable. In any case it isn't an attack against Denmark as it are a direct and very famous quote from Shakespeare's "Hamlet," which happened in Denmark, as you surely would have known, if you just had read the story. and so would i like to ask you to shut up. Statements like yours do far more, to damage our reputation, than anything that where written in this thread. Seriously, how can you with one arrogant hand, say that the Danes are better than others, and then with the other hand shout at people to "Shut Up", just because you clearly didn't understand, what there where said??! Just do us a giant favor, and shut up. your nonknowledge (i believe he meant uvidenhed/ignorance, but this is the closest to what he wrote) and tactless attack make me sick.l

note that words written like this are phases that can be said in Danish, but which i believe can't be said in English and that words written like this sound all right in English but cant be said in Danish

Eloel
2008-12-19, 09:22 AM
vegetal, italic doesn't work in quotation.

Jayabalard
2008-12-19, 09:47 AM
And if you think the standard PC behavior towards NPCs is anything other than "Kill, then loot"...

Well, you don't know PCs.more likely, they just play with a different sort of gamer than you do, so they've seen a much wider variety of actions, and the "kill, then loot" isn't standard for them.

Kris Strife
2008-12-19, 09:48 AM
:furious:Stop mocking my country, here's not rotten, our culture is older than most other, we are friendlier than them too, so SHUT UP:annoyed:

If you do this again I'm afraid I would have to tell the moderators and get you attacked for it.:annoyed:

This is 'friendly'? Does the word not translate well, or does Denmark use a different scale for friendliness? Or were you just saying you're friendlier than the French?

Murphy80
2008-12-19, 01:25 PM
Which is why I always wanted to make a team of Liches who are each other's Phylacteries. The players have to kill all of them at once, or one of them will regenerate and they'll all come back with a vengeance.I like it. The only problem is Liches are evil and might have a hard time trusting each other. They need to have a reason to trust each other. Each lich should also have stockpiled the ingredients, and be far enough away that they have time, to make another phylactery.

ChaosDefender24
2008-12-19, 01:36 PM
No one should ever try diplomacy... alone.

I had a witch abducting children from a town, hiding in a spooky house (off in the woods, of course) full of strange, jet-black goblins. The PCs arrive, bust in the door, and search (read slaughter goblins) up and down till they eventually find the witch in the basement, in the middle of a ritual. She's surrounded by mean, grinning goblins and the players get close just in time to witness a small child being dropped into a cauldron and clawing out with oily, black skin, pointed features and a hungry looking smile.

The reaction was priceless, especially thanks to the one player who decided to mutilate some of the goblins earlier.

This really really reminds me of the encounter in Heroes of Horror when a green hag and her gray jester minion had kidnapped children, used the jester's mind control on the children, and had them eat each other for dinner. And they have the children attack the PC's

Yukitsu
2008-12-19, 01:41 PM
I'm stealing that wall trick, it's awesome. As long as you don't mind, of course :smallsmile:

Go for it. Just remember that it's incredibly frustrating for the players to get through, and very, very tricky to map out. :smalltongue:

Murphy80
2008-12-19, 05:43 PM
I had a witch abducting children from a town, hiding in a spooky house (off in the woods, of course) full of strange, jet-black goblins. The PCs arrive, bust in the door, and search (read slaughter goblins) up and down till they eventually find the witch in the basement, in the middle of a ritual. She's surrounded by mean, grinning goblins and the players get close just in time to witness a small child being dropped into a cauldron and clawing out with oily, black skin, pointed features and a hungry looking smile.

The reaction was priceless, especially thanks to the one player who decided to mutilate some of the goblins earlier.For the most part I like this story, but I have a couple of questions;
1- so the children didn't revert back when killed as is usual for "shape-changed" creatures?
2- could they be turned back into children?

I did something similar, the group attacked the BBEG in his lair underground. Scattered around the room were several altars with sheep on them, slowly having their life drained to power a powerful ward effect. The wizard let off a fireball which happened to catch a couple in it's area. When the dead sheep turned into a dead gnomes, that's when they discovered that the sheep were polymorphed (3.0 game) people. :smalleek: Good times.

newbDM
2008-12-20, 03:39 PM
These are some great ideas guys. Love them!


Another one I just came up with:

Say that the BBEG is looking for this ancient artifact, and it has been the focus of the whole adventure/campaign. The BBEG wins, and he manages to get to the item before the PCs.

There he finds a mystical helm with a powerful magical aura.

The PCs then barge in to find the BBEG sitting by the alter, wearing the helm, an holding a flower in his hand as he pulls the peddles off saying "(Subboss) loves me! she loves me not. She loves me! She loves me not........."

It is now an evil act to kill this guy. :smallbiggrin:

Assassin89
2008-12-20, 04:18 PM
These are some great ideas guys. Love them!


Another one I just came up with:

Say that the BBEG is looking for this ancient artifact, and it has been the focus of the whole adventure/campaign. The BBEG wins, and he manages to get to the item before the PCs.

There he finds a mystical helm with a powerful magical aura.

The PCs then barge in to find the BBEG sitting by the alter, wearing the helm, an holding a flower in his hand as he pulls the peddles off saying "(Subboss) loves me! she loves me not. She loves me! She loves me not........."

It is now an evil act to kill this guy. :smallbiggrin:

So the artifact was a helm that changes alignment? Anyway, create an illusion that one character is falling to death when the character really fell 5 feet.

Trizap
2008-12-20, 05:10 PM
These are some great ideas guys. Love them!


Another one I just came up with:

Say that the BBEG is looking for this ancient artifact, and it has been the focus of the whole adventure/campaign. The BBEG wins, and he manages to get to the item before the PCs.

There he finds a mystical helm with a powerful magical aura.

The PCs then barge in to find the BBEG sitting by the alter, wearing the helm, an holding a flower in his hand as he pulls the peddles off saying "(Subboss) loves me! she loves me not. She loves me! She loves me not........."

It is now an evil act to kill this guy. :smallbiggrin:

so? just leave him like that, maybe use sovereign glue to make it permanent,

newbDM
2008-12-20, 08:26 PM
So the artifact was a helm that changes alignment?

Basically.


Anyway, create an illusion that one character is falling to death when the character really fell 5 feet.

I am confused. Is the illusion for the character who fell, or for the ones still above?



so? just leave him like that, maybe use sovereign glue to make it permanent,

Well, the point was that usually by the end of an adventure/campaign the PCs are so angry at the BBEG, and probably so disgusted at what he has done that they want him dead (at least if the DM is doing things right).

Kris Strife
2008-12-20, 08:41 PM
Well, the point was that usually by the end of an adventure/campaign the PCs are so angry at the BBEG, and probably so disgusted at what he has done that they want him dead (at least if the DM is doing things right).

He was a 10 year old that stole a copper piece from them?

Jack_Simth
2008-12-20, 09:00 PM
In keeping with the thread, our DM likes to drop us in water. A lot. It's ridiculous how often it comes up, sometimes. Once, I fell into a river inside of a glacier. I have no idea how that worked even now.
Glaciers have interior waterways. There's an energy potential difference between solid water and liquid water, so both can exist at exactly freezing.


"You enter the house. There are some goblins standing around in the next room lounging around. They don't seem to notice you yet."

Slaughter ensues.

Witch mentions later how useful Silent Image can be in disguising the children ...

Do note that the Image line isn't permitted to change thing's appearance, as they are Figments (check the Magic Overview - it's noted in the spell subschool). For that, you want Veil (a Glammer, which can specifically change appearances).

Something I had fun with:
Ghost was going around to different towns, possessing someone, and then using the other townsfolk for experiments on instantaneous shapeshifting (Fabricate a mold, Flesh to Stone a subject, put subject over mold, cast Stone to Mud on subject (mild variant of the spell, to affect non-mundane stone) to put all of subject's mass into the mold in the "correct" shape, Dispel Magic to re-stone the subject in the new form, remove mold, then Stone to Flesh to make the subject alive again). He was running a furniture store, and sold the PC Wizard a self-heating, self-repairing cushion for her carriage.

Epic_Wizard
2008-12-20, 09:13 PM
Greater arcane sight requires a caster level check opposed to the person that made the walls, since they took insidious casting. :smalltongue: Plus every wall has the same aura. Strong illusion. :smalltongue:

Greater Arcane Sight automatically tells you what spells or effects are active and even with regular arcane sight you could at least distinguish the illusory walls from the invisible solid ones. For one the solid ones would radiate faint Conjuration as well because they were created with spells. Second the Illusory Wall spell has a permanent duration as compared to invisibility which lasts minutes/level or Minor/Major Image (will save to disbelieve every time you run into one).

Anyways any party that has True Seeing should have Greater Arcane Sight which sort of bypasses the whole trap. (or at least makes it significantly less annoying)

Assassin89
2008-12-20, 11:53 PM
I am confused. Is the illusion for the character who fell, or for the ones still above?


The illusion is for the character who fell. Results in more psychological trauma for one character.

Jack_Simth
2008-12-21, 12:11 AM
Greater Arcane Sight automatically tells you what spells or effects are active and even with regular arcane sight you could at least distinguish the illusory walls from the invisible solid ones. For one the solid ones would radiate faint Conjuration as well because they were created with spells. Second the Illusory Wall spell has a permanent duration as compared to invisibility which lasts minutes/level or Minor/Major Image (will save to disbelieve every time you run into one).

Anyways any party that has True Seeing should have Greater Arcane Sight which sort of bypasses the whole trap. (or at least makes it significantly less annoying)
World-specific feat, Insideous Magic; makes divination spells by other casters require a caster level check to properly note the spell's aura.

Assassin89
2008-12-21, 12:13 AM
How about making the real BBEG a little kitten who is supposedly the pet of the one everyone thinks is BBEG.

Rutskarn
2008-12-21, 12:20 AM
Here's a story from one of my campaigns. I've become famous for pulling crap like this.

One of the players is a druid, and he's...less than scrupulous. In fact, he murders hobos as part of a pact he has with a demon. Who is also his staff.

In one of the larger cities, he's cruising around the seedy part of town, looking for victims. He finds a grimy inn named The Elf Back Inn, so named because of the preserved, intact elven ribcage nailed to the front of the pub.

Inside, he sees a bartender in a more or less empty, dimly-lit room. At the back is a locked door.

The druid asks the bartender what's behind the door. Nervously, looking around for anyone listening, the bartender relates:

"Look, I rent the basement, and...the new renters are a group of some sort. They all wear black robes, they don't talk much, and they...well, they started taking cats from the alley downstairs with them, and I thought, well, that's their business, right? But then..." He shudders. "They started bringing down people. People near dead of starvation, disease, or...well, some of them were wounded. Knife marks."

The druid is, of course, intrigued. He makes his way downstairs, and is greeted by a black robed man.

The druid expresses interest in their activities, and the man is eager to explain.

"We're always looking for eager new...recruits. You see, we are but humble servants of our sacred lord, the many-armed Khava-sati. We seek only to do...his work, down here on earth. In a city such as this, where a man can disappear without a trace and nobody will ever notice...well, a city like this is a place where we can apply our selves most effectively.

"Come with me, and watch how we work."

The cultist leads the druid into an adjoining room. Lying on a stone table, surrounded by cultists, is a badly wounded, poorly dressed man, apparently unconscious.

The cultist raises a black wand, pointing it at the man.

"Through the power of Khava-sati...BE HEALED!"

Blue energy flows into the homeless man, who gets up, overjoyed.

Turns out, the cultists were actually running a combination homeless shelter/animal rescue facility. A moment later, another cultist walks in with a basket of kittens one of the cats just delivered. He offers one to the druid, who disgustedly declines.

If I recall rightly, the druid followed one of the homeless guys when he left the building and beat him down. Good times.

newbDM
2008-12-21, 01:03 AM
Here's a story from one of my campaigns. I've become famous for pulling crap like this.

One of the players is a druid, and he's...less than scrupulous. In fact, he murders hobos as part of a pact he has with a demon. Who is also his staff.

In one of the larger cities, he's cruising around the seedy part of town, looking for victims. He finds a grimy inn named The Elf Back Inn, so named because of the preserved, intact elven ribcage nailed to the front of the pub.

Inside, he sees a bartender in a more or less empty, dimly-lit room. At the back is a locked door.

The druid asks the bartender what's behind the door. Nervously, looking around for anyone listening, the bartender relates:

"Look, I rent the basement, and...the new renters are a group of some sort. They all wear black robes, they don't talk much, and they...well, they started taking cats from the alley downstairs with them, and I thought, well, that's their business, right? But then..." He shudders. "They started bringing down people. People near dead of starvation, disease, or...well, some of them were wounded. Knife marks."

The druid is, of course, intrigued. He makes his way downstairs, and is greeted by a black robed man.

The druid expresses interest in their activities, and the man is eager to explain.

"We're always looking for eager new...recruits. You see, we are but humble servants of our sacred lord, the many-armed Khava-sati. We seek only to do...his work, down here on earth. In a city such as this, where a man can disappear without a trace and nobody will ever notice...well, a city like this is a place where we can apply our selves most effectively.

"Come with me, and watch how we work."

The cultist leads the druid into an adjoining room. Lying on a stone table, surrounded by cultists, is a badly wounded, poorly dressed man, apparently unconscious.

The cultist raises a black wand, pointing it at the man.

"Through the power of Khava-sati...BE HEALED!"

Blue energy flows into the homeless man, who gets up, overjoyed.

Turns out, the cultists were actually running a combination homeless shelter/animal rescue facility. A moment later, another cultist walks in with a basket of kittens one of the cats just delivered. He offers one to the druid, who disgustedly declines.

If I recall rightly, the druid followed one of the homeless guys when he left the building and beat him down. Good times.

You sir are a genius. :smallbiggrin:

I am against evil games, but mind if I rework this into something misleading for a group of heroes?

Rutskarn
2008-12-21, 01:29 AM
By all means.

Yeah, that party was a little bit on the grey side.

The leader was a demented, CN kobold sorceress with acute pyromania. Other members of the roster included an amoral martial arts master who disfigures his fists and arms to toughen them and a whimsical demon in human form (true neutral: he wanted to play a psion, and I told him he could play this race I'd created that had an INT bonus. The race appeared to be human--however, he would have to have a.) amnesia and b.) a ring he couldn't remove. During the last session, the ring was shattered, and he spontaneously reverted to his previous form--a twisted, many-legged spined thing. He was pretty surprised.)

Epic_Wizard
2008-12-23, 03:57 AM
By all means.

Yeah, that party was a little bit on the grey side.

The leader was a demented, CN kobold sorceress with acute pyromania. Other members of the roster included an amoral martial arts master who disfigures his fists and arms to toughen them and a whimsical demon in human form (true neutral: he wanted to play a psion, and I told him he could play this race I'd created that had an INT bonus. The race appeared to be human--however, he would have to have a.) amnesia and b.) a ring he couldn't remove. During the last session, the ring was shattered, and he spontaneously reverted to his previous form--a twisted, many-legged spined thing. He was pretty surprised.)

I think this pretty much takes the cake for stuff to do that screws with players.

Another one would be a cursed Immovable Rod that's command word activated. When more than a certain amount of force is applied then instead of holding in place it zooms off in the opposite direction. So when someone tries to use it as a ladder it lifts them up into the sky. The players would be surprised at first but I get they would start having fun with it. Using it as a clothesline would get more fun for a start.

"The orc runs into the rod at about stomach height and is immediately swept off his feet as the rod carries him backwards at high speed"

The best part would be if the rod didn't stop till the command word was spoken once it's activated. Once it's started the PC's could lose it if they aren't careful. :smallbiggrin:

Kami2awa
2008-12-23, 12:01 PM
Knowing where the coin is isn't going to do them any good if (1) they don't know exactly where that place is ("Well, it looks like a market square. The current holder is using it to buy some clothes from a stall.") or (2) they know where it is, but it's a long way away and by the time they get there, the coin could be elsewhere.

That actually sounds a really fun campaign, along the lines of Jorge Luis Borges story 'the Zahir', about a seemingly ordinary coin that forces anyone who has seen it to seek it out for themselves. For added symbolism, make it a silver piece, initially found in a bag of 30...

Kami2awa
2008-12-23, 12:05 PM
This really really reminds me of the encounter in Heroes of Horror when a green hag and her gray jester minion had kidnapped children, used the jester's mind control on the children, and had them eat each other for dinner. And they have the children attack the PC's

What's a gray jester? The name alone sounds like an interesting creature.

TheCountAlucard
2008-12-23, 12:09 PM
What's a gray jester? The name alone sounds like an interesting creature.

If you have the Heroes of Horror book, you can look for yourself. It is a pretty creepy creature. Page 151, it's a Medium Fey that feeds on positive emotions. If it drains you enough, you become a "bleak one."

Dixieboy
2008-12-23, 08:57 PM
Seriøst mand? Er du lige født ti år, eller er du virkelig bare så sårbare? I hvert fald, er det ikke en slag mod Danmark, da det er en direkte og meget beromte quote fra Shakespeare's "Hamlet," hvilke skete i Danmark, som du sikkert ville have vidst, bare du havde læst historien.

Og så vil jeg gerne bede dig om, at klap i. Udtaleser som dine gør langt mere, til at skade vores ry i omverdenen, end noget der var skrevet i denne tråd. Seriøst, hvordan ka' du med den ene arrogante hånd, siger at danskere er bedre end andre, og så med den anden råber af folk til at "Shut Up," bare fordi du tydeligt ikke kunne forstå, hvad der er blevet sagt??! Bare gør os alle en kæmpe tjeneste, og hold din kæft. Din uviden og taktløs angreb gør mig syg. :smallfurious:

genialt mand, simpelthen genialt :3

Darwin
2008-12-23, 09:39 PM
:furious:Stop mocking my country, here's not rotten, our culture is older than most other, we are friendlier than them too, so SHUT UP:annoyed:

If you do this again I'm afraid I would have to tell the moderators and get you attacked for it.:annoyed:

Anyway our DM once made an NPC named Paladin wih a lamp. We bought it and got an annoying spirit wich best trick was to make a butterfly and fart (we trapped him in a stone for 3 days and gave him to the innkeeper)

Rent guld siger jeg jer!

And now for our non-danish audience:

Pure gold I tells you!

Zeful
2008-12-23, 09:44 PM
How about making the real BBEG a little kitten who is supposedly the pet of the one everyone thinks is BBEG.

Make the BBEG Magic Jar Happy. You have an enemy you've never seen and can be anything from a old man, to a floating Vader-baby (ie. telekinesis to kill people). Watch as paranoia ensues.

Cruiser1
2008-12-23, 10:12 PM
Next, shadow conjure invisible, non-real walls that people can bump into. Then do visible shadow conjured walls. Mix these up with real invisible walls, fake visible walls, and fake invisible walls cast from a wand.
Cool, however if the party is at least level 11, have the party Druid cast Find the Path (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/findThePath.htm) to get through this Maze easily. :smallwink:


At the chamber's center stands an enormous solid statue of Moradin standing 400ft tall and 50ft wide made out off 100% pure adamantine. On it's head (at the very top) is embedded a giant crown forged of solid gold with countless gems fused into it.
Basically anything more than an adept is out.
Hmm, it's an interesting challenge to see what you can accomplish with the limited Adept (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/npcClasses/adept.htm) spell list. A 12th level Adept can cast 4th level spells. If the party is at least level 12, have the party Adept polymorph a party member into something strong that can fly. Fly up to the crown, and pry out as many jewels and chop off as much gold from the crown as the party can carry.

Yukitsu
2008-12-23, 10:19 PM
Cool, however if the party is at least level 11, have the party Druid cast Find the Path (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/findThePath.htm) to get through this Maze easily. :smallwink:

The shortest path requires failed will saves and luck. :smalltongue:

SoD
2008-12-23, 11:28 PM
Have the BBEG know their plans every time, and have him mock them for it, hinting that there's one of the PC's informing him of their actions. So the PC's think that each other are moles, when in reality; the secret spy is actually a permancied reduced permancied invisibled whisper gnome expert with feats put into boosting hide and move silently.

When the PC's finally kill each other over it, have him reveal himself when there's only one PC left. Then quickly leave the house you're DMing in, prefurably via a window, when the players realise what you've done, and start throwing their PhB's at you.

Yukitsu
2008-12-24, 12:18 AM
Forgot this one. If any player is willing to play along with it, the BBEG is a diviner liche who was able to determine the individual that was destined to end his tyranical reign of terror before he was born. Said liche goes out, and finds the kid. Instead of killing the little thug, since that would just spawn another warrior destined to kill him, he turned the kid into his phylactery. Years later, the PC party has two options. Constantly fight the liche, or kill the PC. :smalltongue:

The Antigamer
2008-12-24, 01:29 AM
Yukitsu that is an amazing idea that I shall now steal for a future campaign.
One of the most memorable events from games I've run (besides the polymorphed demon/bunny being eaten whole by a troll PC and chewing its way out...don't ask) was when the trickster BBEG forged a note from the local princess and gave it circumspectly to the low int, high char barbarian. (He started out with two fighter levels, so he was able to read. Barely.) Yes he had high char, the player didn't have very high int either. The note ran like this:


"Dear brave warrior, I have heard great tales of your exploits. And when you entered town the other day, I disguised myself and went down to observe you. I find your reputation and appearance extremely 'exciting'. My father is away on business and I would like to invite you to secretly spend the night with me at the keep. If you are interested, come to the keep tomorrow night. To ensure that we are not detected, I have informed my personal guard of what is going on. They are bound to me and will not say anything. When you approach the keep, tell the guards "I am (adventurer's name) I have come from across the lands to show the queen my charmed long staff. Where is her bedroom?" They will resist you. It is part of the plan. You must resist forcefully, it is the only way they will know it is you, for no one can match your might. Be obscene and verbally degrading when you speak about me, it will tell them it is you, for no one has the courage to speak against me. No matter what they say or do, resist. They will then lead you to my room, where you may spend the night with me. I look forward to seeing you again.
The Princess."

Needless to say the barbarian believed the princess had been charmed by his good looks. He took off at night when the rest of the party was asleep at an inn. The next morning, the PC's found themselves rudely awakened by the kingdom's elite guards shouting something about them "being associates of a murdering criminal," and were thrown into jail with the battered and bruised barbarian. He'd made it past the first guards, but the commotion brought the elite battlecasters running, and he'd been overwhelmed. The entire party eventually escaped, but for the rest of the campaign wasn't allowed to go anywhere without using the buddy system.

Epic_Wizard
2008-12-24, 02:43 AM
Make the BBEG the inkeeper at their base of operations in a major city. He's polymorphed, he's always there, and his insane bonuses to spot and listen make it easy for him to hear the PC's plans. Great for a powergamer group since you will have an excuse to tailor encounters against what the PC's plan. They start putting Immovable Rods in doorways? Their enemies are short. They pack fireballs? Everyone has Rings of Fire resistance. When the PC's call you on it you can tell them honestly that there is a perfectly valid reason for this. Ideally the discover someone or other following them around and things let up for a while until close to the final battle where something should point to the inn keeper. Then the city becomes a battle field and they have to worry about civilians and collateral damage at the same time as they are trying to take down something that could destroy the city AND can fly.

newbDM
2008-12-24, 12:20 PM
Yukitsu that is an amazing idea that I shall now steal for a future campaign.
One of the most memorable events from games I've run (besides the polymorphed demon/bunny being eaten whole by a troll PC and chewing its way out...don't ask) was when the trickster BBEG forged a note from the local princess and gave it circumspectly to the low int, high char barbarian. (He started out with two fighter levels, so he was able to read. Barely.) Yes he had high char, the player didn't have very high int either. The note ran like this:



Needless to say the barbarian believed the princess had been charmed by his good looks. He took off at night when the rest of the party was asleep at an inn. The next morning, the PC's found themselves rudely awakened by the kingdom's elite guards shouting something about them "being associates of a murdering criminal," and were thrown into jail with the battered and bruised barbarian. He'd made it past the first guards, but the commotion brought the elite battlecasters running, and he'd been overwhelmed. The entire party eventually escaped, but for the rest of the campaign wasn't allowed to go anywhere without using the buddy system.

Dude, I love this! :smallbiggrin:

The only problem I see is that due to metagaming the PC/group will automatically know itt's a trick/trap. It doesn't really seem like you can fool the player, or the rest of the players with this.




Make the BBEG the inkeeper at their base of operations in a major city. He's polymorphed, he's always there, and his insane bonuses to spot and listen make it easy for him to hear the PC's plans. Great for a powergamer group since you will have an excuse to tailor encounters against what the PC's plan. They start putting Immovable Rods in doorways? Their enemies are short. They pack fireballs? Everyone has Rings of Fire resistance. When the PC's call you on it you can tell them honestly that there is a perfectly valid reason for this. Ideally the discover someone or other following them around and things let up for a while until close to the final battle where something should point to the inn keeper. Then the city becomes a battle field and they have to worry about civilians and collateral damage at the same time as they are trying to take down something that could destroy the city AND can fly.

Dragon much?

The Antigamer
2008-12-24, 02:45 PM
Yes, they knew it was a trap, but the Barbarian had been rping how unintelligent he was, and he had to continue doing what his character would do. You can easily switch it up though so it's less obvious. Maybe the BBEG could impersonate someone from the castle the PCs know, and tell them that all the guards are disguised evil outsiders of some kind, and that the Princess is being held hostage. For good measure he could make sure the first couple of guards the PCs encounter are evil minions disguised to look like guards.

Epic_Wizard
2008-12-25, 08:21 PM
Dragon much?

Explain? :smallconfused:

newbDM
2008-12-25, 08:51 PM
Explain? :smallconfused:

I was just asking if it was a dragon.

Zocelot
2008-12-25, 08:55 PM
This one requires very little setup:

When in an empty hallway, count out loud how many squares the PCs have walked. It can help if you even tell them to hang on a minute and recount. When they reach a predetermined square, yell "BAM" really loudly, and tell the PCs that they hear a very loud noise that deafens them for several rounds. Don't allow any talking until the effect wears off. This has the twofold effect of making them assume that there are no more traps in the hall, and not letting the party tell the person with the highest search to check the next (heavily trapped) square.

Epic_Wizard
2008-12-26, 02:55 AM
I was just asking if it was a dragon.

Yes, I thought I said that but I must have forgotten. Really need to stop posting when it's this late >.<