Frost_Spawn's page

Ok, some groups don't like riddles or puzzles. That said, let me offer some advice.

First, reward player effort. I don't mean let them bypass your carefully laid out plans by repeating the same idea over and over again, but when they do trot out something like "looking for wear and tear" set a DC that is basically 5 or 10 LOWER than the trap and roll to get a "clue" that gives them a bonus. You can tell them they are sure about one of the symbols, but not the rest. Or you can give them a bonus on a different skill roll (like +2 circumstance bonus) if those are applicable.

And skills should be applicable. The players aren't their characters, some game device should be used to have character abilities figure in.

Lastly, if you want to avoid players doing this sort of thing...avoid giving them combination traps. Split a dozen symbol type glyph around the dungeon/ruins that monster are guarding. Make sure they find more than 4 before they get to the ominous free-standing obelisk (that acts as a teleport gate) with the 3 depressions that happen to be the same size as the square the glyph are mounted on. When 3 glyph are pressed into the 3 slots if they are the correct 3 in the correct order the gate opens. Regardless if the order is correct or not, all the glyph (all 12) disintegrate and new copies are created in their holders. Make sure there is some ancient story that gives a clue as to what symbols go in which order pictured in the room or on the obelisk itself.

Or have a blank slate that the right symbols must be drawn in. Or the answer needs to be spoken. Or a certain list of spells might be cast in the correct order. Or one spell per "trap", if the wrong spell is cast the trap is activated. Success bypasses the trap, failure triggers the trap but the party gets to advance anyways.

If you want the party to stop doing the same stuff to bypass the same puzzle, change the puzzle. Don't try to punish the party because they won't play your way, because that never goes well.

first off i want to thank everyone for all you diff kinds of advice.

2nd i'd like to point out i did at the start of the campaign go over with everyone what style of gameplay they like and expect. everyone agreed a good mix of combat, role playing, and puzzles was what they wanted.
with that said i'll be using some of these things mentioned to help get through my coming campaigns.
Meirril I really like your idea of have players get pieces to a puzzle type thing and have to insert them in correct order, or giving them more pieces than holes so they need to figure out which ones to use! I will definitely use this in the future but for my current puzzle it won't work.

So my players have this nasty habit of asking for any wear and tear on any sort of puzzle that involves like a combination lock of sorts. and i'm trying to figure out how to get my players to stop trying to get an easy way out of these puzzles that i go into a lot of effort into putting together.

Scenario 1:
I set up what would be a combination lock set the 3 dials mechanisms to the 3 correct numbers in order. so it was simple for them to find the numbers easy enough, but finding the correct order was the puzzle. they asked "do i see any wear or more use on any particular number dial than the others" basically looking for me to just give them the answer!

Scenario 2:
players need to find hints/clues to figure what the number and symbols combination was needed on a "dial pad" for lack of a better word. and they just need to get the correct number and symbols that go together on the list that is on the "dial pad". now if this was modern age you can say you probably would be able to figure out while dusting for prints which "buttons" to push that have been used the most, or others that have not been used at all. I have no had run this yet for my players yet, it's coming probably this Saturday. my players have in the past been trying to do the exact same approach to scenario 1 and i guarantee will word some similar question / approach to "solve" the puzzle by skipping over the whole research and gathering portion of this puzzle...

please help me get my players to not do this.
in the first scenario i basically told them there is no wear and tear. they were pushing and pushing and weren't really happy with that answer. so i told them nothing was used in 100's of years so there was no difference.

Thank you sooo much Cintra Bristol for your help and recommendations. the Howler is actually quite Perfect as it mimics the spike fiends attacks and description! I was looking at the yeti, it seemed like my best choice as well.
The list of monsters is quite big though, however I don't need all of them right at this moment, the few i listed I will be needing for my next session and I was going crazy trying to find an equivalent monsters.
Is there a specific spot on these forums that would be better place to make a post listing them when I do need them?

Hey i'm a new DM in general, and i've probably only have about a couple years worth of playing in DnD & Pathfinder. So I don't know what all the different types of monsters that exist.
What i'm looking to do for my game is, I already have an idea of monsters that I want to use, and will be making some custom monsters. What I need is a "base" monster that is preexisting that is somewhat close to all the monsters I'll be using. I have an app on my iphone called "game master" with a compendium of every monster in PF, but it doesn't have an image or descriptions of them.

I found a few links online to search for a monsters by terrain, CR, etc. but what i'm looking for is search or best way to look for existing monsters by image. Short of literally buying every bestiary and looking at every single existing monster...

I don't even know if what i'm looking for exists, but if anyone has any other ideas on how to help me i would be grateful.

here are a few monsters I will be using that i need an existing monster equivalent or similar.
https://diablo.gamepedia.com/Spike_Fiend_(Diablo_II)
-for this one i was thinking of taking the porcupine stats and just describing it differently

https://diablo.gamepedia.com/Wendigo_(Diablo_II)
https://diablo.gamepedia.com/Tainted_(Diablo_II)

I should probably mention that yes, i am running a PF game based on the world of Diablo 2. If that wasn't already apparent.

Thank you all for you helpful, informative, and QUICK replies. I really appreciate what everyone had to say.
SheepishEidolon you made a good point that i didn't think/realize I was doing about screwing with their expectations. I just thought I would make them go get "turned around" if going south was the wrong move to do. But i see now that I can still work with where they are going. The distance was the "key" and problem with all of this.
I have a map for my world so i'm trying to be consistent with the scaling on how far each town/area to every other thing on the map and how long it should take players on foot.

Here is the scenario:
Players entered a cave, killed everything in the cave, were on their back out of cave to report to NPC who told them to clear it out. 1 of the players mentioned I wonder if there are any hidden doors/secrete rooms.
I ran with it, and liked the idea and the way the map was laid out, it happen to fit. So after finding the opening they headed in. It was a completely straight pass that was "man made".
Nobody has Knowledge geography, so i told them to make a nature check instead. I told them you are pretty sure it leads south. It was kind of obvious looking at the drawn out cave. They doubled checked their map of the land, and assumed where this passage is leading.
Yes I "set them up" to go directly to the another important plot point I have set up. We ended the session after them traveling a few days inside this tunnel and told them they will find out where it leads next session.
I realized today the potential error and hope to fix it before our next session this Saturday (5-5-18).

My question / problem:
I don't want to make it seem like they are forced to go to this next plot point. There isn't any rush, but they will have to do it eventually.
Now I could just have the cave bend to turn until it faces north and they come out on the complete opposite side of the mountain where they think it's leading, thus not forcing them to plot point, and giving me a chance to have some random encounters as they make their way eventually to that plot point, instead of a "quick way".

1) So first off is it bad to just let them just go to the plot point (South) as they assume they are heading too?
2) Is it bad to have them "turn around" and lead them out on the North exit?
3) Should I go with the South or North exit?
4) Other options on how I should/could handle this situation?