Things a DM can put in a dungeon to totally mess with players


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I've been wanting to make an amalgam creature combining a dweomercat with a rust monster.


Two ghostly Muppets follow the party and heckle everybody ( i.e. Statler and Waldorf ).


On that note, if anyone mentions a word that could have a meaning relating to an explosion, a crazy-looking burning skeleton could appear out of nowhere, yell out "Did somebody say <explosion-related word>?" and burst into flames, catching some PCs in the fire.


It's a BOMB.

https://www.google.com/search?q=bomb+cake&oq=bomb+cake&aqs=chrome.. 69i57j0l5.13528j0j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

They will keep wondering why there are cakes put out for them, till someone makes a knowledge check, and when you say it's a bomb, it explodes!:)


One GM put a duck in the dungeon. I didn't have any background in the joke and took it at face value. The resulting experience ruined the immersion and was the start of the death-spiral of that campaign.


Goth Guru wrote:

It's a BOMB.

https://www.google.com/search?q=bomb+cake&oq=bomb+cake&aqs=chrome.. 69i57j0l5.13528j0j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

They will keep wondering why there are cakes put out for them, till someone makes a knowledge check, and when you say it's a bomb, it explodes!:)

"And the alchemist had a fully functioning bomb in the corner of the lab. It appears to be recording at the moment."


This scene


Have a haunted room of the dungeon. Dead people keep showing up to have rap battles. You will need biographies of famous people and monsters in Golarion.


I once created this species of fish that jumps out of water and attaches themselves anyone walking past their pools. They're pale, slimy, incredibly tough and taste like lutefisk. The only real way to remove them without hurting yourself was to walk near another pool of water, where the fish would jump off into fresh hunting grounds.

Another was a tiny slime that looks like a puddle, stepping on it caused it to shoot out from under the player and trip them.


Every annoyance should have a saving grace. What if the Tarrasque is deathly allergic to ducks?


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A crystal ball that you have to watch 2 commercials before it will function normally for 10 minutes, then 2 more commercials!


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have your gamers contend with a group of controlling diviners that seem to use implements to remotely control the actions of others... after long combats they finally kill off said sorcerers to learn that they look like themselves...

Grand Lodge

Hello Kitty parasol, that's actually an unbeatable monster.


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This is a classic:

Midas Medusa: instead of changing players into stone, she changed them into Gold. Will the players bring their fellow back, or will they sell him?


A room where the floor, walls, and ceiling are all mirrors. The room is empty of all other objects and illusions make all entrances and exits look like they, too, are covered by mirrors.

Watch which players need to make a sanity check just to imagine that.


Terrinam wrote:

A room where the floor, walls, and ceiling are all mirrors. The room is empty of all other objects and illusions make all entrances and exits look like they, too, are covered by mirrors.

Watch which players need to make a sanity check just to imagine that.

Or do this but then tell the players how not every mirror is showing the same things (and why have any physical entrance - just have a teleport trap deposit the players in a room with mirrors on all of the surfaces and it appears that they are standing in an infinite plane. But then as they get their heads around this idea mention that some reflections aren’t the same... note perhaps as well the odd lack of shadows (perhaps caused by light sources reflecting so many ways.... or was that a shadow in some of the reflections but not in others...

(And then use the level appropriate shadows/incorporeal/extraplanar threats of your choice. And either have curses triggered when mirrors are destroyed or other effects. Personally I would probably look at Linnorm Death curses for inspiration (via both the creature and the Barbarian rage powers). Perhaps one or more of mirrors are living creatures. Or intelligent magic items or a planar gate...

(And of course look at the spell Irriseni Mirror Sight if you want the bad guy to talk to the players thru the mirror - technically it doesn’t allow for speech but I would probably allow it for effect)


Rebound Doors. They seem like normal doors and react in all ways as a locked door would, save that it's un-unlockable by any means attempted (because it's not a door) and force is always met with equal force. Had a character try to kick it in and it responded by throwing him prone. He then attempted it with a running start...

The door aforementioned was in a hallway with multiple doors of its nature and only one or two real ones. This particular door was directly across the hall from another rebound door. When the PC hit the door, it threw him across the five foot hallway into the other door that resulted in a reciprocal bouncy doom. It was ended by DM fiat in order to save the campaign. I believe we were only an hour or so in to the first session.


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Scott Wilhelm wrote:

This is a classic:

Midas Medusa: instead of changing players into stone, she changed them into Gold. Will the players bring their fellow back, or will they sell him?

Obviously the correct answer here is "first one, then the other." Use the money from selling him to un-goldify him!


Seemingly prophetic town criers that shout out all of the player characters' deeds!!


When a PC says something stupid, an NPC casts quest on them to find someone who cares.


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The woodland critters from South Park.


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Cartman from South Park.


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Pray he doesn't serve you chili.

Shadow Lodge

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Al Gore & manbearpig as a druid and his animal companion.

Cerial


The Usual Suspect wrote:
Al Gore & manbearpig as a druid and his animal companion.

I do have the occasional player who would eat all the treasure to smuggle it out of the dungeon without the other players knowing...

Shadow Lodge

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quibblemuch wrote:
The Usual Suspect wrote:
Al Gore & manbearpig as a druid and his animal companion.
I do have the occasional player who would eat all the treasure to smuggle it out of the dungeon without the other players knowing...

Do you call them Cartman? Or The Coon?

Definitely make them make fort saves to hide the belly ache they would get until their booty passed the booty.


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Coins filled with explosives that go off when exposed to body heat for a full minute.


A small little doll with a child's body but an old woman's face - mechanically a guardian doll from Irrisen - but then layer on witch levels if you want to just ruin your player's day - a little, tiny, animated doll that hexes the party, curses them, turns invisible or teleports and chases them thru the dungeon... add in hints that the doll is powered by the soul of an actual innocent (who may or may not also have the class levels that the doll has if the party manages to defeat the doll and save the soul...


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The Usual Suspect wrote:
quibblemuch wrote:
The Usual Suspect wrote:
Al Gore & manbearpig as a druid and his animal companion.
I do have the occasional player who would eat all the treasure to smuggle it out of the dungeon without the other players knowing...

Do you call them Cartman? Or The Coon?

Definitely make them make fort saves to hide the belly ache they would get until their booty passed the booty.

In Paul Kidd's novelization of White Plume Mountain, the main hero, called the Justicar, picks up Escalla, a greedy female pixie thief, as an adventuring companion. In the dungeon, she heads off by herself, scans a treasure, and swallows a pearl in it. Later, another character makes fun of Escalla, saying "All this adventuring and you have no treasure to show for it." She replies "This too shall pass."

Later, when the party has to pass through a dangerously hot place, the Justicar suddenly gets alarmed and asks Escalla "You didn't swallow any coins, did you?" She nervously replies "Pearls don't burn, do they?"

Goth Guru wrote:
Coins filled with explosives that go off when exposed to body heat for a full minute.

Hmm...


Goth Guru wrote:
Coins filled with explosives that go off when exposed to body heat for a full minute.

A teddybear that explodes when hugged.


Incidentally, a party i GM a game for is now fighting the woodland critters.

;D

Fiery eye lasers & sadism, huzzah.
HAIL SATAN! ASMODEUS!


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Goth Guru wrote:
Coins filled with explosives that go off when exposed to body heat for a full minute.

See also: "Self-Limiting," a short story by Robert L. Forward.


A portal to modern day New York City. Make certain to explain everywhere in terms that make it sound scary and alien. See how long it takes before the PCs try to murder a car.


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Coins that are actually nanite swarms that begin consuming the characters that carry them, making more coins in the process. Damage as per Disintegration.


Save DC = 10 + number of coins carried.


A restroom complete with a toilet. When you close the door the whole room flips upside down.

Eww is right.


When you say 'restroom', you mean a toilet room, right? So, why say 'complete with a toilet'?


Arakhor wrote:
When you say 'restroom', you mean a toilet room, right? So, why say 'complete with a toilet'?

"Restroom" literally means "toilet room," at least in the U.S. But, there is the occasional exception that doesn't actually have a toilet. Some only have a urinal, some only have a sink and mirror. Some have a sink, mirror, and shower.

The toilet may be implied, but oddities of design mean it's not always present.


Goth Guru wrote:

A restroom complete with a toilet. When you close the door the whole room flips upside down.

Eww is right.

Toilet normally implies something that gets rid of the waste. No major eww.


Only with the advent of modern flushing loos. Otherwise, it was up to night soil men to take away the leavings.


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Goth Guru wrote:

A restroom complete with a toilet. When you close the door the whole room flips upside down.

Eww is right.

Sounds like a porta-potty to me.


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If done properly, have said lavatory be a mimic.

They'll never want to risk going to one down there ever again. ^^


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Burning Hands trap set to fire upward from the toilet as soon as someone sits on it is just as effective as a mimic.


Yes a modern toilet, full of water. If someone forgot to flush, and the door is closed first thing, it's like tipping a porta potty.


Clowns.


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Terrinam wrote:
Burning Hands trap set to fire upward from the toilet as soon as someone sits on it is just as effective as a mimic.

I suggest a very patient ooze. Normally it feeds on the ... food .. provided. However, it may have been a while and it's getting hungry down in the dark where almost no one thinks to have their characters actually look before using the facilities.

Bonus style points for an intelligent Unchained Rogue ooze ....


A vending machine with elder stars in it.
There doesn't have to be an old one in the dungeon, but there might be...


Make lime jello and cut it into cubes. Use them in a dungeon to represent gelatinous cubes. Yes, whoever kills it gets to eat it.


I find impossible dungeon layouts really mess with the players. 100 ft of corridor, turns left, 100 ft of corridor, turns left, 100 ft of corridor, wait how am I in a different room?

When the corridor then branched upwards and downwards, the parties soldier assumed that because of the weird geometry that gravity would be weird too, so they tried to step out into the corridor that branched downwards 60 ft. They fell 60 ft, then they triggered the pit trap that comprised the floor of the drop. They took a lot of fall damage.


Folks always talk about adding oozes to their dungeons so I took the advice. The problem is mechanics, if you're playing Pathfinder rules anyway.

Most oozes that don't have some magical property have a very low stealth skill. Even those with some form of blending or transparency seem to still be detected on a DC 15 Perception modified by distance.

I put an Id Ooze (advanced gray ooze with psychic powers) in a dungeon, squirming out of a cleft in the wall at 40' from the party. First off the PCs are APL 7. Secondly there is both an Investigator and a half-elf Druid in the party. Both have bonuses to Perception hovering around +15 or more.

The Id Ooze, between a weak-sauce Lesser Confusion attack, 10' speed and an abysmal DC 19 Stealth versus the PCs' Perception checks the fight was over in one round. Heck, even the half-orc Barbarian spotted the thing!

Now, an Awakened Id Ooze with 5 levels of Adept to give it an Invisibility spell on the other hand...

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