I have the stage set for this big moment. The players enter a room in which an artifact has been used to open a portal to the plane of Limbo. The spirit of an ancient dragon lives within the artifact and has been using those that opened the portal, and now that dragon is pulling all chaos from Limbo in order to give himself the perfect resting place for eternity. This will create a gray waist of Limbo, and could destroy the material plane with the excessive amounts of chaos. Enter the players, seeing a swirling portal, a trapped Githzerai, dark tendrils chaos holding the Gith in place, and Slaadi on the other side slowly dying from all these events.
And it is here that the problem comes into play. How can I make this an epic and interesting encounter without there being a combat to solve the problem? There should be a way to resolve this without a battle, but I can't think of one.
The party consists of an Oracle, Wizard, Bard, Ninja, and Alchemist. They have all the elements they need to resolve this, but the problem is that I am just not sure how to present it to them in a way that they can resolve it without swords drawn. Any ideas?
I would suggest a skill challenge, you can find sample DC checks on this page
http://gneech.com/rpg/pathfinder-rpg/page-42-for-pathfinder-revisited/
I would suggest a skill challenge, you can find sample DC checks on this page
http://gneech.com/rpg/pathfinder-rpg/page-42-for-pathfinder-revisited/
A nice idea in theory, but when I was running 4th ed the skill challenges just turned into a giant roll off and had no element of excitement to them. I am thinking more of something that actually gets their brains going, engages them as they look to solve the problem, and does not use the dice in general.
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Well, a series of "random" encounters that do not involve creatures could do the trick work. What if they need a few objects, or the "essence" of chaos to seal the portal.
Example 1: Room with random objects in it scattered about. On other side of room is some type of essence or object or key they need. As they enter the room, gravy switches direction and everything flies across the room and continues to do so every few turns. Players need to use a combination of Reflex to avoid getting it, Acrobatics to jump across items to get across, and of course Flying.
But lets say a particular skill is required to "collect" the essence, or the desired item is locked and the keys are well.... in the room and flying every which way from the changing gravity. Or perhaps there are locks on each wall that takes a particular key from the other side of the room. With the changing gravity, it makes things a little interesting to collect the right key and deliver it to the right side.
Can always makes things more difficult by having each half of the room have a different direction of gravity.
I suppose in this example the use of any type of flying ability would make the fun less fun.
Example 2: Similar to the above but now instead of gravity changing, the room randomly changes elements. Maybe for a few rounds there is a raging windstorm with the chance of lightning strikes. After a few rounds, the storm subsides but now random patches of the floor are melting and the room super heats. Then a flash flood drowns the room for a few rounds.
Example 3: The room is becoming a demi-plane of Limbo and constantly changing. The players need to get to the artifact but the space between them and the artifact is expanding in this new pocket dimension. First it looks like a field of grass but as the players advance the grass continues to grow and grow until it becomes a forest. Forest turns into steaming jungle. Eventually the steam becomes a monsoon and the jungle floods. Players (hopefully) reach the top of the new sea and see icebergs floating around.
Throw in what ever skill checks or saving throws you feel needed. You could pretend the room is fighting them by throwing in random spells appropriate for their level at them. Could throw in some minor creatures that were pulled in by the artifact. The creatures might not be major challenges but combined with the changing environment could pose a hazard that forces players to work together. Such as dealing with swim checks...
Are they already there or is this a future encounter?
If it' a future encounter, you can foreshadow some alternate mechanics to make it interesting. Maybe some sort of weird prophecy that only the PCs would fulfill (ex. ninja to succeed some sort of great stealth roll while the bard does a good perform, while the oracle & wizard simultaneously cast either the same or opposing spells upon a special formulae that the Alchemist has to make on the spot), or a series of checks that they need to be able to do in correct order.
If they are already there, that is a bit more problematic as it might be difficult to communicate what needs to be done to solve the mechanic.
-TimD
This is what I have come up with so far:
Step 1: First the players must remove the phylactery from the grasp of the portal. By being in this position the device is both powering the portal and acting as a homing beacon for the Dracolich who floats above the temple at this time. The phylactery is out of reach by physical means, and hovers above a thirty-foot deep pool of water. The players not only need to devise a way to reach the phylactery but also how to remove it from the tendrils of chaos that hold the phylactery in place.
Finding a way to cross the water should be the easiest issue for the players to solve. If a fly spell is used then the player needs to make a fly check, DC 15, with every declared movement because of the chaos that has filled the room. If a player fails this check and intends to move toward the phylactery, for example, then they find themselves flying in the opposite direction. Unless a player specifically declares a speed in this action then this is a non-factor and no damage is taken in these situations.
Players can also use solid objects, like ladders, rigged objects, and other various methods to cross the pool. In each situation there is a chance that the object will change in physical nature because of the chaos in the room. 1-25 – the object remains as intended, 26 – 50 – the object turns into a rubber like substance, 51 – 75 – the object becomes made of a cloth like substance, 76 – 100 the object turns into a gel like substance. Spells can be used to counter these effects, but every spell cast in this chamber as an spell failure chance of 25%, to include divine spells.
Once the players have made their way to the phylactery they must then find a way to remove the object from the space it occupies. Simply touching the phylactery will force uncontrolled chaos into the player and they will need to make a save vs death, Fortitude DC 25. Succeeding on this check will result in the player being tossed from the area surrounding the phylactery and sustaining 1d6 negative levels.
In order to knock the phylactery loose the players will need to interact with floating balls of chaos that move about the room at random. Making contact with these balls can potentially transform the object or thing that makes contact with it. If a player makes contact with a ball then there is a 35% chance that they will transform into something else. In order to determine this roll on the random table listed below (reincarnation table). If an object makes contact with the ball then that object will be transformed into something else, or has a 15% chance of being turned to ash. The players will need to move three of the balls successfully. This will require a player to be positioned near the phylactery while another moves about the edge of the room to gather the balls and sends them into the center of the room. Once a ball reaches the center of the room the player must make a ranged touch attack with the ball at a -10 against an AC of 15. Three successes are required in order to knock the phylactery loose and will send the items flying off to the edge of the room where it will land safely on the walkway that surrounds the water.