Please help me melt my PCs

[gregunderscorem]

So I'm whipping up the obligatory volcanic dungeon and I figured I might ask the playground for a little help with staffing the place. What are some great Magma or Fire themed creatures you've used in the past? I've already settled on the final boss: a pyroclastic dragon erupting from the magma pits, but any help with the minions would be appreciated.

Notes:

• The place is hot, so anything there should be resistant or immune to fire damage.
• The party is at 12th level, but there are 7 of them (yes its a big party and no it's not easy) and so far they've proven themselves really capable, so feel free to let loose with more powerful creatures.

[Desril]

Fire Elementals, maybe magma elementals, and of course a Red or Pyroclastic Dragon

[FMArthur]

I'm sure you could do something absolutely insane with Rylkar, which are gigantic rats that rapidly breed through exposure to fire. Monster Manual V.

[Jair Barik]

MM2 had fire bats if I remember correctly (or was that fiend folio?)
If you don't mind people comparing the dungeon to LoZ throw a load of them at the party en mass.

Also there are several different types of flaming ooze scattered throughout the books. Nothing like having the lava itself jump up and try engulfing the PC's (I believe these are in both MM3 and Sandstorm)

[GodGoblin]

AZERS! These guys are awesome. Bronze bodied, fire haired Dwarves! Whats not to like!?

[Kuzimu]

I'd personally suggest a the Elemental Weirds. Just change to be fire instead of ice. Can't remember the source!

[Frog Dragon]

The Ice weird is in Frostburn. There's air, fire, earth and water weirds in MM 2.

Do note that they all cast as level 18 sorcs with extra domain access, so even being stuck to their pools, they are more powerful than Frostburn indicates (CR 15), and the MMII elemental weirds are criminally under-CR:d.

[Callista]

Fire? Magma? Use that terrain! If the party is fighting a bunch of enemies in an empty room, it's one thing--if they're fighting a bunch of enemies on a rickety stone bridge above a river of lava, it's an entirely different thing.

Expect them to have energy resistance up; you can probably have the monsters bull-rush them into various fiery obstacles.

Oh, and: Lava-breathing sharks. Just because.

[GodGoblin]

Oh, and: Lava-breathing sharks. Just because.

Half Fire elemental Bullete running around and diving out of lava pools? Yes.

Also Living Fireball spells and similar?

[Tyndmyr]

I'm sure you could do something absolutely insane with Rylkar, which are gigantic rats that rapidly breed through exposure to fire. Monster Manual V.

There's also a mold in the SRD that does something similar. An interesting way to arrange colder areas in the dungeon if necessary, though you'll need some plausible barrier to prevent them from spreading everywhere. This also creates a nasty trap if the PCs break said barrier.

[manyslayer]

Since most fire creatures are vulnerable to cold, do something to grant the BBEG cold immunity (Mantle of the Icy Soul from Frostburn permanently grants the Cold subtype). If the pyroclastic dragon has a screwed up family life you could add the half-dragon template for white or silver dragon.

Advanced summoning oozes (MM3) are immune to fire and can bolster the forces of the big bad. Hide them in shallow lava pools and have them summon away. Heck, have them swimming through streams of lava throughout the dungeon harassing with summoned creatures whenever the PCs encounter something. Have them summon something fast when the PCs are first encountered to send word to the boss.

[PretzelKing]

include a fortress of fire giants somehow!

[gomipile]

Some living spells would be neat too. Living fireballs, living flaming spheres, and the like.

[Telonius]

Magmins. These nasty little critters have an ability that should at least alarm low-level melee combatants:

Melt Weapons (Ex)

Any metal weapon that strikes a magmin must succeed on a DC 12 Fortitude save or melt away into slag. The save DC is Constitution-based.

The DC's low, but still, it's just one bad roll away from disaster. They have a low CR, so feel free to send a horde against a bunch of level-12 players. The more enemies, the more chances they have of melting a blade.

[Ursus the Grim]

I've always been partial to Thoqqua(s) from Core. CR is a bit low, but advancement and templates can fix that easily.

[dextercorvia]

Living Spells have been mentioned. They are awesome. You can make them from status spells (status+fire), instead of just more fire (which the PC's should have some immunity/resistance to).

The problem is that they aren't themselves immune to fire. Since your BBEG is a Dragon, how about Half-Dragon Living Spells?

[Jair Barik]

Also if your really set on melting them then place the ark of the covenant somewhere as a trap. If they don't look away then they are toast

[Aergoth]

Those burning ghosts from either LM or HoH. Cinderspawn I think.

[Land Outcast]

Take a frost worm, take out the frost, put in some flaming, change cold for fire and ice for lava. Should be fun.

Some efreeti couldn't hurt... visiting form the city of brass :D

[randomhero00]

Not that you can by RAW but...awakened lava! The entire place has an intelligence, maybe a 3 or so, maybe 2, so it can't talk. But it senses threats by things that aren't hot enough, and it wants to protect its heat/energy source. So basically it gives you free reign to suddenly have lava flowing up and into a room for instance that they might be inhabiting.

Don't do it too often. I'd say, never let them figure it out until they get to the end. Basically use it in place of traps. That plus flaming oozes and a caster or two that keeps escaping, should be enough to make them think they're doing something odd they can't figure out.

[Chen]

The DC's low, but still, it's just one bad roll away from disaster. They have a low CR, so feel free to send a horde against a bunch of level-12 players. The more enemies, the more chances they have of melting a blade.

Because destroying a PCs weapon is always fun, especially if they have no way of knowing its going to happen until it does.

[stainboy]

In a place where the party can't survive without Resist Elements, there's nothing quite as funny as Dispel Magic traps.

If the dungeon is full of magma you gotta try to drop a PC in a pool of magma at least once. Use monsters with Telekinesis. Have a Half-Elemental Bonespear (Fiend Folio) on an island of rock harpoon the PCs and reel them in. Have monsters or traps use Passwall, Phase Door, or Stone Shape to punch holes in walls and release lava flows.

[Telonius]

Because destroying a PCs weapon is always fun, especially if they have no way of knowing its going to happen until it does.

Absolutely. There's a reason those "Knowledge: X" skills exist. If they don't put any ranks in them, it's their own funeral.

[Toliudar]

Swarms of thoqqua! Entire passages that get filled with the bouncing fireplace pokers! What's not to love?

[randomhero00]

Absolutely. There's a reason those "Knowledge: X" skills exist. If they don't put any ranks in them, it's their own funeral.

Shrug, I kind of agree and disagree. There's got to be some bonus to playing an unarmed/natural strike character. If I did do that tho (destroy valuable weapons) I'd make it up to them by the boss.

[Cyrion]

Since the party is going to bulk up on fire resistance, throw in something with another energy type available. Have an ice devil (they're immune to fire) visting- it's an emmisary of some sort setting up a fiendish plot that might be a good adventure seed for the next arc- with a few flunkies of some sort. At CR 13, a party that size should be able to dispose of it with a bit of effort depending on what you've given it as minions. It's cone of cold could catch the party by surprise and make them scramble a bit.

[randomhero00]

Since the party is going to bulk up on fire resistance, throw in something with another energy type available. Have an ice devil (they're immune to fire) visting- it's an emmisary of some sort setting up a fiendish plot that might be a good adventure seed for the next arc- with a few flunkies of some sort. At CR 13, a party that size should be able to dispose of it with a bit of effort depending on what you've given it as minions. It's cone of cold could catch the party by surprise and make them scramble a bit.

That doesn't seem fair when you're obviously going into a fire dungeon.

[Cyrion]

That doesn't seem fair when you're obviously going into a fire dungeon.

For a 12th level party? I think it's entirely fair to throw an odd source of energy at them once in a while. The key to success here will be balancing the minions. You want just enough that the party has to spend some action economy on something other than blowing away the ice devil in round 1, but not so many that it gets off an excessive number of cold spells.

And he did say he wanted to melt the party...

[randomhero00]

For a 12th level party? I think it's entirely fair to throw an odd source of energy at them once in a while. The key to success here will be balancing the minions. You want just enough that the party has to spend some action economy on something other than blowing away the ice devil in round 1, but not so many that it gets off an excessive number of cold spells.

And he did say he wanted to melt the party...

Yeah, melt not freeze.

[Cyrion]

Yeah, melt not freeze.

And what happens to frozen things sitting in a volcano?