Inspiration for encounters

[Kerubi]

hello,

I'm looking for good ideas for encounters, since they always come in handy. Any ideas are welcome, from vague ideas to already played memorable encounters. I'm sure there's already a thread of this sort in existence, but I couldn't find it using search, so I started my own.

I especially appreciate encounters that for example
- require use of particular skills
- have a timeframe, so the group members will be forced to make rushed decisions
- require some tactical thinking

The PC's are now level 9 and challenge is welcome. Often we only have one bigger encounter and not many small ones during one day, but ideas for both types are welcome.

The PC's are
- elf ranger / beastmaster, focus on ranged combat
- half-orc barbarian / fighter, focus on melee
- halfling rogue
- human cleric
- elf monk

Typical bad guys in the campaign setting are
- orcs
- bugbears
- ogres
- servants of hextor, mainly humans
- drows
- gnomes

I can provide more info on the campaign if required. Thanks already in advance!

[Glass Mouse]

Go go, notebook of ideas (a bit random and "plotty", but hopefully they'll be a bit helpful anyway)!

My party is currently in a dungeon where a mad and highly paranoid wizard is trying to kill them. Dungeon design can be as you like, the weirder the better. One detail is small notes falling from the ceiling, containing the wizard's reactions and occasional curses (I write the notes behind my screen and throw them at the table). Could be played as a random dungeon, or as part of the plot (in my case, the wizard's paranoia is entirely justified).

Don't know if it's too cliché by now, but there's always the good ole trich with the big guy and the small guy, where they pretend to be a mother and a child (from the distance), and then have a whole backup of baddies.
To play with that one, I thought about throwing in a little gem: Party walks whereever, party sees a little girl playing with dolls. Party approaches... it's not a girl, it's a halfling sorcerer/small devil/anything creepy... and the dolls are not dolls! They're awakened/golems/whatever, and they attack!
...just the look on their faces....

Party meets an animal, and for some reason they end up fighting. Animal dies. Later: party finds out that animal was not just a regular animal, when an enraged druid tries to rip them to pieces.

An idea from here: a changeling or doppelganger (or similar) who greatly envies people with great lives. Kills and replaces everyone it starts to like, then lives for a while as that person, before it starts envying someone new. May and may not try this trick with a party member.


Honestly, I'm not that big on goblinoids as enemies (too LoTR-esque to my tastes), so my ideas may be a bit weird for your campaign. But if you provide some more information (as in: is there an overarching plot or situation, or does the campaign consist of subplots?), I'll happily try to think something up ^^

[WeeFreeMen]

I find that often the hardest fights are the tactical ones.

Ill give you an example of what I gave my last party to go against.

The good guys were in a basin / valley, surrounded on all sides by anywere from a 90 - 160ft climb, there were 5 high rise rock formations in the center of the basin, these too had rises about 90-120 ft.

5 Goliath Scouts / Peregrine Runners (Races of Stone PrC, I think)
-They were MinMaxed on 3 things
-Initiative, Skirmish Damage, Trip / Pins
-Basically their job was to do gorilla warfare, hit and runs, and pin the characters or trip them, and ultimately try to stagger / displace the PCs
*Note, they carried special battle plans, 1/5 of the total map each: They were used to Scout the "Good guys" encampments in the basin as well as Mark them for seige by way of Colored smoke sticks*

Atop each of the 5 highrises were a group of "Siege Teams" Their job was to as the name implies Wreak havoc on the good guys encampments bellow.

Siege Team: 1 Hill Giant (Complete with a Pile of Rocks and some cows for food. lol) 3 Crag Top Archers (Goliath, races of Stone PrC):Basically, these guys were MinMaxed for Long Long Long Silly Long range combat. 1 Drow Cleric, specialty in Healbot and Scouting magic
(Arcane Eye, Clar / Clay, etc.)

Finnaly, we had the patrol teams atop the Basin walls. What are they you might ask? Why of-course MORE hill Giants, Archers (This time close range spec), and MinMaxed Goliath Shocktroopers! (What better to push the PCs off the cliff? ;)

As you can tell, this was a Hard encounter, and I have no problems killing off PCs if they make stupid choices (For instance, the party tanked decided he could take the damage just fine, and thus literally, Rocks Fall he died ;P )

Now the Catch you say? The suspense grabber?
They had 1 week to Clear out the 5 High Rises, else they would be wiped out, they had to clear a way for the supplies caravan, else they starve, and they got to lead the final rush against the BBEG along with 700~ High-Elf fighters, whats cooler than Hundreds of Elfs climbing up the cliff side getting pelted by hundreds of arrows? (The woolly mammoth that the druid turned into flying around, thats whats cooler! ) but that aside.

If your interested, I could send the builds for the assault teams, and BBEG, and the Area map. Overall we had a really good time playing out this scenario, aside from the party tank having some hard feelings..(Luckily the BBEG had a scroll of resurrection on him..how lucky for the tank )

Best of Luck
-WeeUnit ;)

[Sipex]

I ran a fight designed by someone else but it was fun nonetheless. You can use the whole setting or just the basic idea.

The PCs have entered a lower chamber in the sewers in search of two boys who were kidnapped from their beds (they believe this since the door to the house was still locked and there's a giant hole in the basement leading to said sewers).

They first traversed a traditional sewer maze and ended up tracking a giant rat to this point.

This room is pitch dark, lit only by their own light.

See the map below for reference.

So the PCs find the two little boys in the center on that little island after following the sound of a lute playing. There's a man in rags nearby who's really a wererat. After talking with him (or brashly attacking him) the PCs will be able to detect movement outside their torch light (which turns out to be several giant rats, rat swarms and a few dire rats.

Once the battle starts the were rat (still human!) runs out of sight letting the rats swarm the PCs and as soon as he's out of sight he uses an action to shift into a dire rat.

He then moves his way over the the switch (s) for the water trap (T). Once he pulls this the PCs hear a grinding of a chain and the trap rolls initiative. On it's initiative you roll 1d4 and depending on the number rolled the trap attacks the corresponding square with:
Area Burst 2
Attack: +10 vs Fortitude
Hit: Any thing in the area is pushed two squares away from the epicenter of the trap (if on the epicenter then a random direction) and falls prone.

This occurs while the rats fight skirmisher style dashing in and out of the pillars to lure the adventurers away from the kids.

o - Sewer walkways
w - sewage (knee deep)
x - pillars (block LOS)
[] - Bridge
T - Water trap
OwwOOOOOOwwO
OwwwwwwwwwwO
OwwwwwwwwwwO
OxOxOwwOxOxO
OOTOOwwOOTOO
OxOOwwwwOOxO
wwwwwOOw[]ww
wwwwwOOw[]ww
OxOOwwwwOOxO
OOTOOwwOOTOOs
OxOxOwwOxOxO
OwwwwwwwwwwO
OwwwwwwwwwwO
OwwOOwwOOwwO
OwwOOwwOOwwO

[Crow]

For a memorable encounter, keep it somewhat simple.

Here's one;

While traversing a ledge along a frozen glacier, the team is ambushed by frost salamanders. Not only do they need to maintain their balance along the ice as they fight off the interlopers, but the salamanders' minions are positioned on the ledge above, chipping off chunks of ice that fall with incredible force.

If you don't like ice;

The combat occurs on a series of small islands in air pocket of a beautiful grotto. Not only do the participants need to leap from island to island just to traverse the battlefield, but the rolling swells caused by the fierce current mean that an island only remains exposed for two rounds at a time. Half the islands are swallowed up as others are revealed. If the participants don't make it, it's time to go for a swim!

[Thatguyoverther]

Gnomes make the best villains. Have a group of Gnomes slowly replace all the orphans in an orphanage with one of their own. The PC's have to stop the gnomes from killing more children while making sure that no actual children get in the crossfire.

Best of all the gnomes don't need and actual reason to be killing defenseless orphans, their gnomes. In my games their the only race that has a racial armor proficiency for puppy armor.

If that doesn't horrify your players enough have a gnome wizard escape and have him start abducting the cities pets. Then writing explosive ruins on the collars and releasing them.

[Strawman]

The adventuring party runs across a small stone fortress, thirty feet by thirty feet. They can see the marks of many nearby goblinoids. A guard at the fortress invites them in and asks for the party's help. Inside the fortress are a dozen soldiers. There are all human and dressed for combat.

They tell the party, "We've been trying to rid this land of aggressive hobgoblin and bugbear warparties. They have layed seige on us twice a day for a month now. If you would be willing to protect us for just one night, we could get the sleep we so desperately need. We can reward you with much of the supplies we looted from the dead hobgoblinds of previous raids."

The party agrees. They defend the fortress from a raid that night. A mix of hobgoblins and bugbears, mostly without magic. The soldiers rest all through the raid.

After the raid is over, the soldiers agree to return the favor and watch over the party while they rest. As the party falls asleep, the soldiers reveal themselves to be followers of Hextor. They attempt to kill the party in their sleep.

If the party is too able to detect evil for this deceit to work, the fortress could have some kind of anti-magic field or anti-detection field around it. It would make sense for a military outpost to have something like that.

[Elfin]

No matter what, you can never go wrong with steep slopes, slender ledges, and very long falls.

[Kerubi]

Thanks for all the answers, I already got a bundle of ideas for future encounters, especially for some taking place in the mountains, where ledges are bountiful. and thank for explaining things in such a detail, it makes the planning so much easier.

Strawman: a great idea, thanks! I had a similar thought myself about a military camp that's constantly raided but nothings funnier than a good deceit! and this encounter will fit the plot very nicely.