[3.5] Need A Monster For This Party

[Dralnu]

My party is about to enter a massive forest called Underdark Forest. It's basically a place of perpetual darkness. Obviously, things that like dark places live here, and many inhabitants of the Underdark use the forest as an extension of their underground homes.

I've stressed many times to this group that this place is one of the deadliest areas around and I want to throw a challenging "random" encounter the first night they sleep there, just to set the mood of the place.

The party is currently level 8. They dinged right when we wrapped up the last session:

Spoiler

Show

Dunsten, Human Barbarian 2 / Warblade 6: Tank of the group. Smasher of the group. Likes the Bonecrusher maneuver, a lot. Often does around 40-50 damage on his swings and ignores DR. Has a toned down version of the Mineral Warrior template (DR 2, Natural Armor +2)

Jimmy, Halfling Rogue 5 / Assassin 3: Sneaky scout, silent killer, and trap disabler. Uses his anklet of translocation and rogue's blade to teleport all over the place.

Don, Human Favored Soul 8: Support. Likes combat control. Favorite spell is Summon Undead II for skeletal owlbears. Also likes Dispel Magic. Can fly.

Syn, Drow Scout 8: Sneakiest scout of the group. Often hides / moves silently for 30ish and his eyes and ears are the best too. Can mimic Hawkeye pretty well with a diverse array of special arrows.

What's a good monster(s) that fits this dark environment and can pose a significant challenge for this group without going overboard?

[Saph]

Simple Shadows would fit the theme nicely and can be quite deadly while still being defeatable with good tactics. A single Shadow is only CR 3, so about 6-8 of them would make for a CR 8-9 encounter. Or you could just use one or two Greater Shadows for CR 8 and 10 respectively.

Shadows are nasty enough even if encountered in open terrain, and become much worse if you take advantage of their ability to stay in walls/floors/trees/the ground and pop in and out. Greater Shadows with Spring Attack are even worse. Make sure to read up on the incorporeality rules first.

[Lev]

Underdark is codeword for drow.

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/drider.htm
^here's a drider for ya.

[Talon Sky]

Pft, a drider? How cliche.

A drow version of Chuck Norris, riding a half-dragon beholder. There's your challenging encounter. :D

[dsmiles]

THE TARRASQUE!

Sorry. Knee-jerk reaction.

An alternate party composed of ettercaps and driders with class levels?
Evil ents?
Forest dwelling Duergar barbarians riding cave bears?

[Lev]

What are their alignments?

[mootoall]

Forest dwelling Duergar barbarians riding cave bears?

OH GOD OH GOD THIS IS INFINITELY MORE TERRIFYING THAN A TARRASQUE.

[Tvtyrant]

My party is about to enter a massive forest called Underdark Forest. It's basically a place of perpetual darkness. Obviously, things that like dark places live here, and many inhabitants of the Underdark use the forest as an extension of their underground homes.

I've stressed many times to this group that this place is one of the deadliest areas around and I want to throw a challenging "random" encounter the first night they sleep there, just to set the mood of the place.

The party is currently level 8. They dinged right when we wrapped up the last session:

Spoiler

Show

Dunsten, Human Barbarian 2 / Warblade 6: Tank of the group. Smasher of the group. Likes the Bonecrusher maneuver, a lot. Often does around 40-50 damage on his swings and ignores DR. Has a toned down version of the Mineral Warrior template (DR 2, Natural Armor +2)

Jimmy, Halfling Rogue 5 / Assassin 3: Sneaky scout, silent killer, and trap disabler. Uses his anklet of translocation and rogue's blade to teleport all over the place.

Don, Human Favored Soul 8: Support. Likes combat control. Favorite spell is Summon Undead II for skeletal owlbears. Also likes Dispel Magic. Can fly.

Syn, Drow Scout 8: Sneakiest scout of the group. Often hides / moves silently for 30ish and his eyes and ears are the best too. Can mimic Hawkeye pretty well with a diverse array of special arrows.

What's a good monster(s) that fits this dark environment and can pose a significant challenge for this group without going overboard?

Beholder. Show them the terror of the underdark when you charm the fighter/barbarian and have them attack the mage.

[Dralnu]

Party is evil alignment. They're trying to seek out the drow in the forest and replace their ruler with Syn, the party's drow scout. They'll use the drow to bolster their evil army and overthrow the dominant elf kingdom on the continent. I'll have drow attack them soon enough, but first I just want a "OMGWTF!" moment as they realize that this forest means business.

I actually like cliche. Almost all of our previous DnD campaigns have been against goblinoids, zombies, some ogres, and more zombies. We fought only one dragon in three years of playing. Never seen a mind flayer or beholder. I want to change that!

Greater Shadows look amazing. Question regarding tactics though: so obviously these things are going to attack, then hide in a surface. I think my players will immediately realize they should ready attacks. To shake them a bit further, I'd like the Shadows start with a spring attack, then use the following round to through the floor to a totally new position. Can my players spot this movement? Would they still be able to ready actions to attack the Shadow if it sneaks up behind them?

Drider looks very fitting too. I'd have to throw multiples to be a challenge though. Ettercaps look great too. Maybe an encounter with ettercaps setting a trap and then ambushing with driders and monstrous spiders. Mmmm.. Delicious!

I like the idea of duegers riding bears, but adding class levels is such a pain. Last session I threw a level 12 deepstone sentinel and two level 6 wizards at the party with a custom spell list of hand picked earth themed spells. It took me 2 hours to make the NPCs. The party had the jump on them and killed the wizards in the first round and then killed the sentinel before he could get in a second attack. It took about 5 minutes. Blech.

I really want to throw a beholder at them! It's such a classic D&D villain but we've never encountered one. In my mind though, they're more of a boss type of creature, not something that would randomly attack the party all by itself.

All great ideas so far. Many thanks!

[Safety Sword]

Shades!

As in the template from the FRCS. Human Shade Rogues are some of the best assassins.

Not only do they like the dark, but they get all sorts of kick ass abilities when they enter dark areas. It would be the logical place for them to want to live.

[super dark33]

there is somthing that have been running in my head for days, but i dont think they will be able to take it:

lich half fiend half dragon sorcerer level 2 mind flayer

[Lev]

Party is evil alignment. They're trying to seek out the drow in the forest and replace their ruler with Syn, the party's drow scout. They'll use the drow to bolster their evil army and overthrow the dominant elf kingdom on the continent. I'll have drow attack them soon enough, but first I just want a "OMGWTF!" moment as they realize that this forest means business.

I actually like cliche. Almost all of our previous DnD campaigns have been against goblinoids, zombies, some ogres, and more zombies. We fought only one dragon in three years of playing. Never seen a mind flayer or beholder. I want to change that!

Greater Shadows look amazing. Question regarding tactics though: so obviously these things are going to attack, then hide in a surface. I think my players will immediately realize they should ready attacks. To shake them a bit further, I'd like the Shadows start with a spring attack, then use the following round to through the floor to a totally new position. Can my players spot this movement? Would they still be able to ready actions to attack the Shadow if it sneaks up behind them?

Drider looks very fitting too. I'd have to throw multiples to be a challenge though. Ettercaps look great too. Maybe an encounter with ettercaps setting a trap and then ambushing with driders and monstrous spiders. Mmmm.. Delicious!

I like the idea of duegers riding bears, but adding class levels is such a pain. Last session I threw a level 12 deepstone sentinel and two level 6 wizards at the party with a custom spell list of hand picked earth themed spells. It took me 2 hours to make the NPCs. The party had the jump on them and killed the wizards in the first round and then killed the sentinel before he could get in a second attack. It took about 5 minutes. Blech.

I really want to throw a beholder at them! It's such a classic D&D villain but we've never encountered one. In my mind though, they're more of a boss type of creature, not something that would randomly attack the party all by itself.

All great ideas so far. Many thanks!

Beholders are slavekeepers, throw some slaves at em.

And slave children.

They ARE evil.

[Kislath]

Look up a critter called a Bastellus. That'll show 'em they're not in kansas anymore.

[Blastfire]

Try shadows, with the shadow template from tome of magic. DOUBLE SHADOWS.

[Dark_Nohn]

Shadow Creature and Pseudonatural templates are good places to start, or if you want the forest to have some more mundane horrors, make a society of Derro (or Kobolds) and have the place be trapped to hell with the most ridiculous traps you can find. Also, have lots of magical darkness, heightened magical darkness so daylight won't break it unless they heighten daylight as well. A team of Derro (or Kobold) adventurers could have the forest trapped to ridiculous extents. Then throw some Vrocks and fiendish pyro-hydras at them

[jiriku]

I like the idea of duegers riding bears, but adding class levels is such a pain. Last session I threw a level 12 deepstone sentinel and two level 6 wizards at the party with a custom spell list of hand picked earth themed spells. It took me 2 hours to make the NPCs. The party had the jump on them and killed the wizards in the first round and then killed the sentinel before he could get in a second attack. It took about 5 minutes. Blech.

Your effort was not lost. The players know next to nothing about these opponents because they died so quickly. Reskin them as members of another race (or just use them as duergar slaves of the mind flayers/beholders/drow) and you can use them again in different combinations in future encounters. My motto is: recycle, recycle, recycle!

[Tvtyrant]

http://www.dinglesgames.com/tools/NPCGenerator/dnd35/

It saves you a lot of time.

[Aron Times]

Let them face an optimized level 8 god wizard.

FLAME SHIELD ON.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Two or three Shadow Mastiffs advanced to 6 HD should really stir them up. Replace their Dodge and Improved Initiative feats with Expeditious Dodge (RotW) and Mobility, and give them Spring Attack at their 6th HD. I doubt the Favored Soul has taken Daylight as a spell known, so it should be extremely hard for the PCs to fight these opponents. They don't deal much damage so they shouldn't overwhelm anyone quickly, but they can move in and trip someone then bound away round after round. Due to their Shadow Blend the PCs will always have a 50% miss chance, and they can run around trees and other obstacles so the PCs lose sight of them. If they take a chunk of damage or if one goes down the rest should retreat into the darkness, then return a few days later to harass them a bit more.

A decent alternative would be a Shadurakul from the Fiend Folio, listed in the Cannomorph entry. It's basically a lycanthrope version of a Shadow Mastiff, the stats in the book are for one with six levels of Fighter. You should give it something like Swordsage instead to make it a trickier challenge.

[Dralnu]

Shades!

As in the template from the FRCS. Human Shade Rogues are some of the best assassins.

Sounds interesting. Is that book Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting? I looked for the template in there and couldn't find it.

lich half fiend half dragon sorcerer level 2 mind flayer

I think I'll be going for standard mind flayers when the party gets to that.

Beholders are slavekeepers, throw some slaves at em.

And slave children.

They ARE evil.

This sounds good. I just need a good setup for it!

Look up a critter called a Bastellus. That'll show 'em they're not in kansas anymore.

I googled it and apparently it's an undead that enters people's dreams and sucks their life force. Very cool but where can I find the stats?

Shadow Creature and Pseudonatural templates are good places to start, or if you want the forest to have some more mundane horrors, make a society of Derro (or Kobolds) and have the place be trapped to hell with the most ridiculous traps you can find. Also, have lots of magical darkness, heightened magical darkness so daylight won't break it unless they heighten daylight as well. A team of Derro (or Kobold) adventurers could have the forest trapped to ridiculous extents. Then throw some Vrocks and fiendish pyro-hydras at them

I was thinking about dropping some shadow/dark creatures in the forest. That gives a lot of flexibility with whatever I want to throw at them. Displacer beasts would be really nasty I think.

For traps, I had Ettercaps in mind, but I'll look into Derro too. The favored soul does NOT have daylight so they're royally screwed there.. I think I'll let them find one or two scrolls of it on a corpse just to give them a false sense of hope.

My motto is: recycle, recycle, recycle!

Yeah you're right. They'll be showing up again!

http://www.dinglesgames.com/tools/NPCGenerator/dnd35/

It saves you a lot of time.

Awesome!!!!

Two or three Shadow Mastiffs advanced to 6 HD should really stir them up.

These look great too. Is Shadow Blend a continuous effect though, or does it work similar to hiding? If attacking brings them out of Shadow Blend then they can't spring attack + blend because it's a standard action to use supernatural abilities.


Sooooo what I got so far is:
- party enter spooky evil forest looking for drow
- an hour's journey inside they find a damaged skeleton clutching a divine scroll of Daylight
- three 6HD shadow mastiffs stalk them, howling and baying, attacking if an opprotunity presents itself (EL 9)
- mastiffs ditch the party after a day or two's travel, indicating one of the following is about to happen:
1) if party sticks to road, they'll run into an ambush set by a co-operative gang of two Ettercap Rogue2's and a Drider (EL 9 + Trap)
2) if they're running in the undergrowth, something big and nasty is about to show up. Hydra is a nice idea but I need a way to drastically raise its HP or else the warblade would 2shot it.
- if I need more encounters, I can always throw in four duegers (barbarian5) riding four (dark) brown bears, EL 11. if interrogated they can point the party to key sites in the underdark
- if the party still isn't scared, two greater shadows (EL10). And once they're down, normal shadows start... watching them.

From there they should finally encounter drow. Either they run into a sentry team (three drow rangers with Alarms all around the area) or one of their encampments. In order to get an audience with the house matron, they must complete two missions:
1) Something with either beholders or mind flayers. Lords of Madness has two encounter areas, one with a rogue illithid sorcerer and another with grells. I was thinking about using one of these and tweaking the difficulty. Perhaps the grell encampment is in fact enslaved by a beholder?
2) Infiltrate and destroy a mind flayer city. Their elder brain is temporarily disabled and the drow want their rivals dead while they're still vulnerable. LoM again is sweet because it has the outline for a mind flayer city. I just hope my players can handle it!

They're granted audience with the drow leader, only to have her turn on the party with an ambush. Once that's over, an aspect of Lolth appears announcing that she's impressed with these outsiders and they're worthy to try her final test in order to lead her minions. A colossal monstrous spider appears, BAM! When they win they'll be granted her symbol and the rest of the drow grudgingly accept the new leadership.

[Thrawn183]

Mind Flayers. Every encounter design problem can be solved with a healthy application of Mind Flayers.

[Lhurgyof]

Sounds interesting. Is that book Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting? I looked for the template in there and couldn't find it.





I think I'll be going for standard mind flayers when the party gets to that.



This sounds good. I just need a good setup for it!



I googled it and apparently it's an undead that enters people's dreams and sucks their life force. Very cool but where can I find the stats?



I was thinking about dropping some shadow/dark creatures in the forest. That gives a lot of flexibility with whatever I want to throw at them. Displacer beasts would be really nasty I think.

For traps, I had Ettercaps in mind, but I'll look into Derro too. The favored soul does NOT have daylight so they're royally screwed there.. I think I'll let them find one or two scrolls of it on a corpse just to give them a false sense of hope.



Yeah you're right. They'll be showing up again!



Awesome!!!!



These look great too. Is Shadow Blend a continuous effect though, or does it work similar to hiding? If attacking brings them out of Shadow Blend then they can't spring attack + blend because it's a standard action to use supernatural abilities.


Sooooo what I got so far is:
- party enter spooky evil forest looking for drow
- an hour's journey inside they find a damaged skeleton clutching a divine scroll of Daylight
- three 6HD shadow mastiffs stalk them, howling and baying, attacking if an opprotunity presents itself (EL 9)
- mastiffs ditch the party after a day or two's travel, indicating one of the following is about to happen:
1) if party sticks to road, they'll run into an ambush set by a co-operative gang of two Ettercap Rogue2's and a Drider (EL 9 + Trap)
2) if they're running in the undergrowth, something big and nasty is about to show up. Hydra is a nice idea but I need a way to drastically raise its HP or else the warblade would 2shot it.
- if I need more encounters, I can always throw in four duegers (barbarian5) riding four (dark) brown bears, EL 11. if interrogated they can point the party to key sites in the underdark
- if the party still isn't scared, two greater shadows (EL10). And once they're down, normal shadows start... watching them.

From there they should finally encounter drow. Either they run into a sentry team (three drow rangers with Alarms all around the area) or one of their encampments. In order to get an audience with the house matron, they must complete two missions:
1) Something with either beholders or mind flayers. Lords of Madness has two encounter areas, one with a rogue illithid sorcerer and another with grells. I was thinking about using one of these and tweaking the difficulty. Perhaps the grell encampment is in fact enslaved by a beholder?
2) Infiltrate and destroy a mind flayer city. Their elder brain is temporarily disabled and the drow want their rivals dead while they're still vulnerable. LoM again is sweet because it has the outline for a mind flayer city. I just hope my players can handle it!

They're granted audience with the drow leader, only to have her turn on the party with an ambush. Once that's over, an aspect of Lolth appears announcing that she's impressed with these outsiders and they're worthy to try her final test in order to lead her minions. A colossal monstrous spider appears, BAM! When they win they'll be granted her symbol and the rest of the drow grudgingly accept the new leadership.

If you need to, make the hydra lernian.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Shadow Blend can be activated once and will stay on forever as long as the creature doesn't get into a daylight effect. Attacking doesn't end it, it just always has total concealment until daylight hits it. Note that without making a Hide check it should be easy for opponents to pinpoint its location, but they won't have line of sight for any ability which designates a target and doesn't require an attack roll. You couldn't hit it with a Hold Monster for example, but a Ray of Enfeeblement could be targeted at one with a 50% miss chance. They can't hide while being observed, so they would have to run behind an obstacle to be able to attempt a hide check.

[The Shadowmind]

Try Half-Farspawn, Shadow-creature Drider. That should be a CR 10 creature, with decent stats, hard to see(near constant total concealment), some decent SLA's, casts as a 6th level caster of choice, fast moving(45ft), one special ability from the shadow-creature template.
And this creature would be creepy looking as heck.