Cool encounters?

[gallagher]

so i was wondering, what are some really cool encounters to throw at players? and by cool, i mean ones that are either fun or interesting, or dangerous enough to change the way players behave.

one that i was thinking was that in the forested areas that are doubtless around, and in other appropriate areas, there are odds that one will awaken a swarm (i will definitely throw hellwasps at them at least once) to teach them that you cant just walk in the wilderness and not expect to get hit by something that you arent prepared for. you cant let the players think that the only encounters are things you can swing a sword at

[Prodan]

you cant let the players think that the only encounters are things you can swing a sword at

You instead teach them to solve all their problems with fire.

[Saya]

A room with four enemies (Likely fighters), each with Diehard, and the room has a permanent delay death effect?

[gallagher]

You instead teach them to solve all their problems with fire.

hence the swarm of hellwasps

i also thought that i should take them to a town where everyone talks in rhyme, and can only understand when people do the same.

[Keld Denar]

3 Frost Giants controlled by a White Dragon.

What? You wanted a cool encounter, and they all have the [Cold] subtype.

Har har har!

[aivanther]

Rust monsters. "Oh, you didn't get blueshine armor and everbright weapons?" (yes, I know it's cruel, but it's such a cheap enchantment...)

Water elementals in a room full of pools of water. I'm imagining something like Zelda-ocarina of time's Water Temple boss.

Were-canaries!

[gallagher]

3 Frost Giants controlled by a White Dragon.

What? You wanted a cool encounter, and they all have the [Cold] subtype.

Har har har!

even better, in order to warn people of the dangers of global warming, i will have these guys show up in florida

[Yukitsu]

A very crazy man with strong shadow conjurations, invisible spell and a lifetime has eaten nothing but false, invisible heroes feasts. He is now innately invisible, and partially not real.

[Jyokage]

To the above poster....Wha?! I'm very interested in how that works.

[Yukitsu]

It works if you're the DM.

It kills some cat girls sort of, but when you eat a shadow meal, you are eating food that isn't real. Over time, the shadow food and water gets absorbed into your body, and your cells start using bits of the shadow food to repair themselves, and to divide.

So after a certain amount of time, all of your real cells and tissues are replaced with fake, illusory ones.

If you add invisible spell to the mix, not only are those particles false, but they are also invisible. Also, you can be dispelled.

You can also succesfully disbelieve yourself.

[AslanCross]

Chain Devil in a slaughterhouse, with all the meat chains.

[Draig]

If your gonna throw something water temple-ish at them in any way be prepared for at least one of your players' head to explode.. the water temple in my eyes was the peak of Oh em ef ge and fml.

Anyway for what to throw at the party if you want encounters they cant fight with brute force, throw either adverse weather conditions at them (tsunami anyone?) or even have random holes, pitfalls, mountains, etc basicall its as if the terrain works against them

[AslanCross]

I'll have to agree that terrain and weather are great additional challenges. A way of making the chain devil encounter even more interesting might be:

A chain devil hides out in a magical meat storage facility. The entire space is a magical freezer, and rows upon rows of sides of beef and pork hang on chains from the ceiling.

1. The floor is slick with ice, imposing balance checks. The chain devil can freely move on chains it's controlling with Dancing Chains, so it avoids the movement penalties.

2. The entire room is filled with cold vapor, and as such is foggy. Everything more than 20 feet away from the viewer has concealment relative to the viewer.

3. The room is filled with chains. The chain devil can attack from as far as 35 feet away, since it can control chains up to 20 feet away from it, and it can cause their length to increase up to 15 feet.

4. The room is cold enough to cause damage. Chain devils are immune to cold.

5. Give the chain devil fighter levels. And Improved Trip.

[Cheesy74]

A final boss I have coming pits my players against a stationary foe, a being with eye rays similar to a beholder's that simply sits on the ground in the room they enter. Once all of them are inside (or any one of them strikes the foe) the room's floor tears apart, leaving only a few islands of earth underneath the PCs, floating over a hundred-foot-deep abyss (with some nasty undead at the bottom). Each round, on the boss's initiative, he swaps around the location of the islands randomly. Behind pillars, next to him, whatever is most convenient for him. The players have to leap between the platforms to avoid the room's hazards as well as work together and defeat the boss. I'm still working on details of what there is to hurt them and where these platforms will go.

[Lysander]

How about a dungeon filled with summon monster traps that only bring a monster into existence for a few rounds at a time. But there are a lot of these traps. And the monsters can also set off the traps themselves. So the players' task isn't to kill the monsters since they're going to vanish anyway, but just evade their attacks and also prevent them from wandering and setting off chain reactions of appearing monsters.

[Gerrtt]

One I think Dr. Wiley should have used back in 1990: a boss door that opens up into a room full of spikes and no platforms.

Bye bye blue bomber.

Seriously though, poll your players.

That or mindflayers, everybody loves a mindflayer.

[Lhurgyof]

A forest? You could use fey "playing tricks" on the party, and taking their stuff, etc. To make another encounter harder.

[Psyx]

You instead teach them to solve all their problems with fire.

How is that a bad lesson?

Alternatively, set a fight somewhere flammable, so as to teach them NOT to do this.


Also: Rust monsters. DAMMIT: someone else got there first.

Ear seekers?

A room full of various slimes, oozes and ick?

[PairO'Dice Lost]

A forest? You could use fey "playing tricks" on the party, and taking their stuff, etc. To make another encounter harder.

The Wood Woad (MM3, I think) has the ability to essentially tree stride at will, so an interesting encounter would consist of several wood woads with levels in scout all in a dense forest, each jumping out of a tree, Spring Attacking past a PC, and jumping back into one. The PCs would need to make use of lots of readied actions and try to take out the trees to flush the wood woads out.

[The Dark Fiddler]

It works if you're the DM.

It kills some cat girls sort of, but when you eat a shadow meal, you are eating food that isn't real. Over time, the shadow food and water gets absorbed into your body, and your cells start using bits of the shadow food to repair themselves, and to divide.

So after a certain amount of time, all of your real cells and tissues are replaced with fake, illusory ones.

If you add invisible spell to the mix, not only are those particles false, but they are also invisible. Also, you can be dispelled.

You can also succesfully disbelieve yourself.

Hmm... what would that do to the wizard's kids? Is being invisible genetically inheritable? Raises way too many questions for my no-bio brain...

[Adam...?]

In terms of interesting encounters, I'm drawn to the final encounter of this interesting House of Leaves inspired "no combat" quest I pulled on my PCs a week or so back. Basically had them trying to escape from a malevolent spatially warping house.

I drew up a quick floor plan for an abandoned two-story house, and after they spent a week or so exploring an infinite maze of corridors located in the house's closet, they finally found their way out and the encounter started.

I marked the locations of windows and doors on the map for the PCs reference, and then had the house rotate 90 degrees, basically dumping them back towards the open closet. Then everyone got to take turns in initiative order, as they tried to escape. The House itself got to act twice a round, and it could do fun things like further rotate around, slope walls/floor, expand/contract spaces, and crush people between walls.

Kinda weird, but it led to some fun instances. Like the party Rogue and Wizard types hanging on to the stair railing like monkey bars, over a 20 ft. drop onto the opposite wall/open closet space leading to an infinite abyss. And when they toss a rope down to the Cleric-type and he grabs on, the space between them starts expanding. He holds on for dear life as rope's slack ends, and he's hauled into the air. Meanwhile, Mr. Wizard botches a climb check and plummets down what is now a 70 ft. drop. Other shenanigans ensue.

Hmm... what would that do to the wizard's kids? Is being invisible genetically inheritable? Raises way too many questions for my no-bio brain...

I guess the children would inherit one set of regular chromosomes, and one set of invisible shadow chromosomes. Assuming the mother and child kept eating regular food, they'd turn out perfectly normal. In theory.

[Yukitsu]

Hmm... what would that do to the wizard's kids? Is being invisible genetically inheritable? Raises way too many questions for my no-bio brain...

I don't think real biology works with non-real peoples... My guess is this is where imaginary freinds come from.

[reptilecobra13]

It works if you're the DM.

It kills some cat girls sort of, but when you eat a shadow meal, you are eating food that isn't real. Over time, the shadow food and water gets absorbed into your body, and your cells start using bits of the shadow food to repair themselves, and to divide.

So after a certain amount of time, all of your real cells and tissues are replaced with fake, illusory ones.

If you add invisible spell to the mix, not only are those particles false, but they are also invisible. Also, you can be dispelled.

You can also succesfully disbelieve yourself.

Holy crap, it's René Descartes at the bar!

[Greenish]

A chain devil hides out in a magical meat storage facility.

Pork futures warehouse!

Hmm... what would that do to the wizard's kids? Is being invisible genetically inheritable? Raises way too many questions for my no-bio brain...

Acquired characteristics are not inherited. (In most cases.)

[Yukitsu]

Acquired characteristics are not inherited. (In most cases.)

This would be if you kept up that diet while pregnant though... Now there is such a thing as "a little bit pregnant."

[RE:Insanity]

Gnome wizards summoning monsters and riding blink dogs while it rains.

[mobdrazhar]

Gelatinous Cubes... everyone loves them

[Tyndmyr]

Rust monsters dragons. "Oh, you didn't get blueshine armor and everbright weapons?" (yes, I know it's cruel, but it's such a cheap enchantment...)

Fixed that for you.

Also fun: Dragons that use illusions to look like other dragons.

Even better, a blue dragon with a metabreath feat to have flame breath. Distribute patches of brown mold strategically around the walls, specifically in the door region.

Slanted black floor. Black pudding. Hole in floor to fit the pudding. Grease traps.

[the humanity]

a lich/necropolitan sorcerer spamming stun effects with drowned backing him up.

[Yora]

You instead teach them to solve all their problems with fire.

For instance this very threads problem:

Fight on a bridge. On fire!!!
Fight in a warehouse. On FIRE!!!
Fight in a wooden fort, ON FIRE!!!
Fight in front of a red dragons cave, and set the surrounding forst ON FIRE!!!

Every fight gets cool by just setting the environment on fire.