Most Underhanded Encounters

[Reltzik]

What's the meanest encounter you can throw at a group of players that ISN'T summed up in stats? That is, wherein the encounter's difficulty doesn't lie in the monster's challenge rating, or environmental factors that might increase CR, but rather other factors? Throwing the tarrasque at a level 1 party doesn't count. Having them attacked by the 6-year-old prince the BBEG kidnapped and then brainwashed before they could rescue him does.

My contribution (Works for almost any iteration of DnD, easily adapted to other systems):

Party is level 10. Having fought their way through a hefty portion of the dungeon, they reach an 80 ft corridor, at the end of which they know is the BBEG's lair. At the end of the corridor is a kobold, unarmed, wearing only a loincloth, who says he will let none pass unless they can best him in single combat. He is not hostile unless anyone challenges him or approaches within forty feet without challenging him, at which point he will warn them to proceed no further without first besting him, and attack unless they do not stop.

It is not actually a monk, sorcerer, soulblade, psion, fighter with invisible equipment, illusion, lycanthrope, shapeshifted dragon, golem, bait for a trap, precursor of a hitherto unknown kobold-swarm template, or improvised explosive kobold. It is, in fact, a simple, straight-from-the-Monstrous-Manual unarmed kobold possessing neither character levels nor template, and no unseen creatures, traps, or other elements are present for the encounter. The DM is not obligated to explain this to the players, but is free to giggle extensively as they plan how to tackle this obstacle.

[Kaun]

That reminds me of the hourglass trap i stole from some where for a game a while back.

The party walks into the room and the doors slam shut at either end (you need to make sure that the walls and doors are able to stop the party from getting out via other means.) A panel in the side wall slides open and out comes a large hour glass with the sand slowly trickling from top to bottom. Underneath the hourglass is a big red button.

The hourglass will be magicly protected from mundane damage and the sand will take about 2 mins to flow from all top to all bottom.

Pushing the button underneath rotates the hour glass causing the bottom to become the top.

Once all sand has reached the (current) bottom of the hourglass both doors slide open and nothing else happens. While the sand is flowing from the (current) top to the bottom the doors remain closed.

So the party just needs to sit and wait for the sand to get into the bottom. Sounds simple enough?

Kept my group occupied for almost an hour. It helps if you find a egg timer to use as a visual prop.

[DodgerH2O]

Re: The Kobold encounter
Any group I've ever DMed for or played with would have at least one (possibly more) player who would just shoot/stab/fireball the kobold while the rest of the party argues about how to tackle it.

Re: Hourglass Trap
I love it. I fully intend to use this someday in a campaign. Since in theory any character can push the button to reset the timer, it matters little if one player tries to argue to let the sand run down. Although I can see certain groups of players getting tempers up either IC, OOC, or both.

I'm not that underhanded. I had a magical book that the Baron wanted the PCs go get and he told them not to open it no matter what. Of course one of them did, and the book vanished. It wasn't intended as a sneaky trick or anything, just the mechanics of the item worked that way and I wasn't going to fudge it (especially after "Are you sure?" several times OOC). It was set to be usable once by any person, after which it would vanish and reappear randomly elsewhere (Along the lines of Dragon Ball).

[Cespenar]

That kobold encounter, while nice in principle, wouldn't hold that way against everyone IMHO. For example, my first thought before finishing reading that paragraph was that I would have my character simply walk and smack the kobold in the head for nonlethal damage. Since "nonlethal" damage doesn't have a risk to actually cause very critical injuries (or even death) like it does in real life, I see that hardly as a challenge.

But that's because I'm not so accustomed to the old-school, "everything that can be a trap, is a trap" mentality that many people might come to possess.

In short, my point is the "underhandedness" usually depends on the mentality and expectations of the group. Might be something to keep in mind if one would like to avoid it (or not).

[Amphetryon]

Characters walk into an otherwise barren, empty room with a single distinguishing feature: a large lever in the middle of the floor. When one of them pulls the lever, a portion of the wall flips around, revealing a lavish throne. When one of them sits on the throne, the arm of the throne opens a hidden compartment and presents a shiny red button. Pressing the button casts Disintegrate on whomever is sitting on the throne.

[dsmiles]

I've used this one before (I think I found it in a internet book of silly traps):

The (low-level) PCs walk into a room where the walls, ceiling, and floor are covered in copper. The copper-clad door slams shut behind them, and there are no other exits. In one corner of the room is a machine with 100 buttons. Each time a PC pushes a button, the machine sends out a mild shock for 1 damage. Little do the players know, but the only way to open the door once the trap has been sprung is to push all of the buttons on the machine without repeating any button pushes. If a button is repeated, the button count resets. It all comes down to a test of wills (and/or a healbot cleric).

I had a party end up taking a total of over 450 damage before getting out of the room. That's dedication.

[Noedig]

Getting players to tell the truth is a fun way to mess with them

Example: An abandoned temple of a deity has door that won't open. The door is magic and will ask the PCs the reason of their visit. It will ask them to tell the truth or suffer the consequences. Have the mission of the PCs be to loot this temple. How many do you think will tell the door that they're here to steal from the temple? And if they do tell the door what they plan? It opens.

[EvilDM]

I actually pulled a good one off as a player.

In a treasure room, under the pretense of looking for magic items, my Pixie trickster set a programmed illusion in a otherwise normal lamp, and told the party it was a genie lamp. I also told them it only had one wish left and that it'd only work in times of great need.

It just so happens that not too long after the guy holding the lamp fell out of a great tower we were near the top of. Thinking quickly he rubbed the lamp, and a genie appeared. As soon as he made his wish the genie turned into a giant image of my character, which promptly kissed him on the cheek and flew off laughing.

Splat for him, followed by a dice shower for me.

[BlackestOfMages]

I actually pulled a good one off as a player.

In a treasure room, under the pretense of looking for magic items, my Pixie trickster set a programmed illusion in a otherwise normal lamp, and told the party it was a genie lamp. I also told them it only had one wish left and that it'd only work in times of great need.

It just so happens that not too long after the guy holding the lamp fell out of a great tower we were near the top of. Thinking quickly he rubbed the lamp, and a genie appeared. As soon as he made his wish the genie turned into a giant image of my character, which promptly kissed him on the cheek and flew off laughing.

Splat for him, followed by a dice shower for me.

that's not actually all that funny, only douchey...

[EvilDM]

that's not actually all that funny, only douchey...

Taking into account it was done completely in character, I had no way of knowing when he would try to use it, he was already dead the second he fell as he had no way of saving himself and the player involved still likes to tell the story, I am going to have to disagree with your opinion of the event.

[Tyndmyr]

that's not actually all that funny, only douchey...

And also funny!

[TheEmerged]

"The Puppets". This was really a case of balance fail on the part of the DM (me, just so we're clear). I created a scenario in a tomb where the party ran into another adventuring party that seemed to think the PC's were monsters. In reality they were 'puppets' being controlled by black myconids hiding in the crypts that were clearly marked on the map. The black myconids had to spend their own actions to have the puppets do so (move action to have the puppet move, and so forth). The puppets were just minions -- one hit and they're down -- but the myconids could reanimate the puppet as a minor action and then continue spending actions.

Obviously, I expected the party to realize the other adventuring party was not the real threat and start looking for the "real" enemy. Which they did -- everywhere but the incredibly obvious crypts clearly marked on the map. Also, it turned out that being able to reanimate the puppets as a minor action made this encounter MUCH harder than it needed to be.

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"Annoying Man!"
This was under HERO/Champions but is quite possibly the most underhanded encounter I ever pulled on the players. It started off with an unofficial challenge: since most HERO fights are over in 1-2 turns (a turn being 12 segments, so a character will typically act 4-6 times per turn), build a character whose maximum damage was pretty negligible and defenses were only average -- but to see how long the fight could be dragged out.

So I built the character under the simple-sounding concept of misdirection. I simply started stacking layers of misdirection...

"He disappeared from where he was standing, and reappeared over there! He can teleport!" "Wait, someone I couldn't see just punched me! And my blow against him went right through him! He didn't teleport, he just went invisible and created an illusory duplicate!" "Wait, the 'illusory duplicate' just punched me!" "Hold on, my targetting smell isn't sensing the duplicate but is detecting someone invisible over there!" "Wait, I just got punched again! And I'm nowhere near the invisible target you're reporting!" "Wait, what are you doing? Your energy blast just hit me!"

Spoiler

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Powers included the ability to go invisible to normal senses, a separate power to go invisible to unusual senses, desolidification, duplication, the ability to create images that were visible to unusual senses but not normal senses, the reverse of that power, teleportation, telekinesis, missile reflection...

We called the battle over after several real-world hours, with the number of turns in the double digits (drawing a blank on the exact number right now). The players have threatened to kill me if I ever do that again.

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"Doctor McNinja's Riddle Trap".

Pretty straightforward, and designed to frustrate the everliving heck out of a group of standard old-school roleplayers and their kids Be sure to read all three pages linked above.

[Lord Raziere]

The Door of Death:

They come to a door that says for them to pass, one of them must dye. Their hair green.
Unfortunately it is a malfunctioning door so all it says is "To pass, one of you must dye."

[Glimbur]

We had a level ~12 evil party who decided to go fight a dragon. Ok, dragons can be arranged. It turns out that the whole time, there has been an area of unnatural cold several miles in diameter about a half day's travel from the city. At the center is rumored to be a dragon. So they go there.

Ice Drakes from Draconomicon are very thematic but not terribly dangerous. The only PC that had trouble in the fight was the one that jumped off of his mount in order to punch one of them. The mount was a giant dragonfly, and they were about 100'(?) off of the ground. It hurt him, but he survived. Then they got to the cave which probably held the dragon. One of the PCs walked up to the cave mouth and said some mean and hurtful things about the dragon. The dragon responded by burrowing out of the ice and full attacking the PC. He went to about -4. They ran away.

Even worse, and the story which is actually relevant to this thread, they came back. The party was a dragonfire adept, a ranger, a druid, a dread necromancer, a swordsage, and an NPC wizard. They entered the dragon's lair and explored. First, they found a Cage Match trap, which cast an enlarged Force Cage and also summoned a Remoraz. Sadly it trapped the DFA who was invisible so the fight was kind of dull. They explored more. There was a sitting room and a pentagram and a throne and a massive set of doors. These doors, once opened, flew open due to strong gusts of wind from the natural chimney in the huge final room. There were a couple of ice drakes and what appeared to be Chazore, the White Dragon. The perimeter of the room was decorated with statues of Chazore. The ice drakes drew some fire, Chazore breathed a breath weapon. The party attacked and took down the ice drakes. They also did about 150 hp of damage to the dragon over several rounds. The dragon had a tough time hitting... because the range increment on Blood Wind is pretty short and the real dragon was one of the statues. The apparent dragon was a double via Trickery Devotion. After the druid died and the image of the dragon disappeared, the party decided to split. The ranger and NPC wizard got away, as did the swordsage. The DFA and dread necro were caught by the dragon and pressed in to service (I don't like killing PCs).

The lesson? Never say "we want to fight a dragon!" because you will get more dragon than you expect.

[Zombimode]

Playing the players/their characters greed.

From my games:

Party set out to search for a dragon hoard (the dragon was dead for quite some time) that was rumored to be somewhere in an abondened mine complex.

After some searching they found themselves in a big cavern with a huge chasm. A human looking man popped in (teleport) and claimed to be the keeper of the dragons hoard. And, in fact, he was. He was also a disgiuse self'ed Black Abishai. And I like to play my Baatezu as the Faustean type.

He offered them a deal: they would get the hoard. All of it. Immediately and with no hatches. He even showed them the hoard to prove them its worth. All they had to do was to kill 1000 Zhentarim within a period of 5 years.
If they would not do their part of the deal... "well, just fullfill your part. Killing Zhentarim was what you wanted to do anyway, right?"

Mindgames

[Thrice Dead Cat]

*snip*

Chazore, the White Death was a fun monster to stat. The PCs are still whining at me for the stunts you pulled with Trickery Devotion, Glimbur.

[kaomera]

I like decoy missions. For example, the patron is paying the PCs to get a message to a confederate in a different city, and warns that cultists (etc.) will try and stop them. He says he will whisper the message to one PC (it's too secret to be written down), but then seems to say nothing. When asked about this he admits that there is a spell woven in the message and the messenger won't be able to remember the message until he sees the recipient. Of course there is no message (or recipient, for that matter) - agents of the patron will follow the PCs, aid them when they're (inevitably) ambushed by the cultists (at which point they will also pay out for the "delivery"), and then use magic to track the cultists back to their base and offer to pay the PCs if they'll clear it out...

Also had a corridor in a dungeon where after a certain point the floor becomes an iron grate which sits above a channel filled with slow-moving water with an oily sheen floating on it. Could never get the PCs to go any further down that hallway...

[Necroticplague]

They see two doors with mouth located on them. One of them speaks to the first person to approach. "One of us always lies, and one of us always tells the truth, and one of these doors leads to certain death, while the other is a shortcut. Once one door is opened, the other becomes a wall, and that way is forever sealed." Pretty standard stuff,right? What the party doesn't know:The door that told them was the door that lies. In fact, both doors are liars, and both paths lead to complete deathtraps (horrendously level-inappropriate encounter with a blackblot and a protean). The real way forward is through a third door hidden between them (who was a shy, geasse'd mimic [actually, all the doors were mimics, so they would have a fight if they tried to break both down). My party only figured it out because one of them said he was banging his head against the wall in frustration, so I had his head get stuck and them hear a small "ow."

[Lord Vukodlak]

The party hangs out just outside the door buffing up with spells they charge inside and right into a wall of dispel magic. They lose most of their buffs and then have to face the opposing party who were buffing up waiting for them to come in.

[Magnema]

Tell your players, "There are rumors of there being, in the mountains, a great dragon horde..."

'Nuff said.

[Traab]

Tell your players, "There are rumors of there being, in the mountains, a great dragon horde..."

'Nuff said.

So you pray they dont ask for clarification on if you mean horde or hoard? thats EVIL! I like it! "Yay! Lots of treasure!" "OMG! Run away! There are like 90 elder dragons here!"

[NNescio]

What's the meanest encounter you can throw at a group of players that ISN'T summed up in stats? That is, wherein the encounter's difficulty doesn't lie in the monster's challenge rating, or environmental factors that might increase CR, but rather other factors? Throwing the tarrasque at a level 1 party doesn't count. Having them attacked by the 6-year-old prince the BBEG kidnapped and then brainwashed before they could rescue him does.

Adamantium clockwork horrors.

Or most stuff from the MM II, incidentally.

[Hiro Protagonest]

Adamantium clockwork horrors.

It's adamantine, adamantium is that stuff in the DC universe that's basically the exact same thing with a slightly different name.

On topic, Tucker's Kobolds.

[The Reverend]

Had an uncle, he playtested ad&D, who created a game world that had a very interesting feature, all the dragons were the same color and that had nothing to do with alignment.

Had another dm. Our npc contacts always referred to another I.portant NPC as "The Prince of Lies". We met him in the abyss so strike one against him. Turned out his phrase "I have never told you a lie" was true he was actually some fallen something er other of Truth and could not tell a lie, even by omissions could always detect lies. They were being ironic, calling a tall guy shorty etc.

[Kalirren]

I once threw a really mean double-encounter at the party that ended up with a single KO.

While escaping from a mage's laboratory filled with fire, (read: lethal damage over time from smoke) they encountered a living spell of Grimwald's Greymantle. (Fort negates: all healing spells and effects fail.) I had this thing slime the entire party and had them make fortitude saves. They were all grateful that nothing happened to them even if they failed.

Then with damage over time was adding up the wizard decided to activate his Healing Belt for 4d8 just in time. I loved the look on the wizard's face when I said, "Nothing happens." "Why?!" " 'Cuz you failed your Fort save." He ended up unconscious and got carried out by the others.

[TheCountAlucard]

It's adamantine, adamantium is that stuff in the DC universe that's basically the exact same thing with a slightly different name.

Marvel universe, actually.

On-topic, such an underhanded encounter was actually in a module I ran for my Vampire troupe.

Spoiler

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The party is given a red metal box, just about the size of an Army duffel bag, sealed, and told to bring it to a torpid elder, with the promise that it'll help bring him around.

Sure enough, they bring it to him, and when they open it up, there's a limbless torpid vampire staked within, and the smell of his blood is enough to wake up the elder... who then attempts to diablerize him.

[The Reverend]

DMd a dragon star game, its awesome and plus SciFi, so my players gave been sent on a mission to destroy this mercenary group who has been working for enemy forces. So they are a couple doors from their targets they open the door and there is a large meditation room. At the center is an older middle age halforc in an aikido go holding a long katana in his lap meditating. Up to this point no one but primitive tribesmen have used melee weapons certainly no one that was actually a threat.

The trick is everyone of the player characters are built towards using ranged weapons, wands, magic, etc. Not a melee combatant amongst them. First rounds the samurai spends dodging fire and sundering weapons so they are left without their best weapons and somewhat damaged for their bossbattle.

[Hiro Protagonest]

Marvel universe, actually.

Yeah. Wasn't sure if they were the same company or not.

[RandomNPC]

Yeah. Wasn't sure if they were the same company or not.

They're the major 2 in direct competition with each other. I'm going to have to ask that you turn in your geek card...

On topic, a 2nd edition boxed game I converted to 3rd has a nasty one.

a 20 foot wide hallway, going about a hundred feet, has a 20 foot wide, 20 foot long, thirty foot deep, uncovered pit. The monk and barbarian try to get a running start and leap it at the same time. They both leap into the reverse gravity spell, and "Fall" up, through the fake ceiling, up 70 feet, into the real spiked pit.

Then the party wizard hits the reverse gravity with a dispell, making them fall the 70 of the ceiling pit, 20 of the hallway, and 30 of the decoy, for another 120 on top of the original 70 they fell. The monk got to slow his fall a good bit of it, the barbarian survives because of his d12 hit dice, and the rest of the party used a pair of slippers of spider climb and some rope to get across.

[Haldir]

On topic, a 2nd edition boxed game I converted to 3rd has a nasty one.

a 20 foot wide hallway, going about a hundred feet, has a 20 foot wide, 20 foot long, thirty foot deep, uncovered pit. The monk and barbarian try to get a running start and leap it at the same time. They both leap into the reverse gravity spell, and "Fall" up, through the fake ceiling, up 70 feet, into the real spiked pit.

Then the party wizard hits the reverse gravity with a dispell, making them fall the 70 of the ceiling pit, 20 of the hallway, and 30 of the decoy, for another 120 on top of the original 70 they fell. The monk got to slow his fall a good bit of it, the barbarian survives because of his d12 hit dice, and the rest of the party used a pair of slippers of spider climb and some rope to get across.

Brilliant.