A crap load of kobolds....
Jovocs. Lots and lots of jovocs. (FF or MM2, can't remember)
An evil cleric with Profane Life Leech (Libris Mortis) and lots of undead (doesn't really matter what kind).
Waves and waves of normal skeletons made by someone with Destruction Retribution (Libris Mortis).
Lots of undead rogues with TWF and wounding daggers backed by a wizard dropping cloudkill and invisibility and improved invisibility on everything!Yup.
I was going to suggest adding vicious to those daggers, but then I looked it up again and saw that it isn't negative energy damage, and thus would affect them, too. So, not such a good idea unless you want a suicide squad of undead rogues.
RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32
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I was going to suggest adding vicious to those daggers, but then I looked it up again and saw that it isn't negative energy damage, and thus would affect them, too. So, not such a good idea unless you want a suicide squad of undead rogues.Lots of undead rogues with TWF and wounding daggers backed by a wizard dropping cloudkill and invisibility and improved invisibility on everything!Yup.
...with Destruction Retribution. Why not? :D
Waves and waves of normal skeletons made by someone with Destruction Retribution (Libris Mortis).
I was nearly lynched for doing this to my players. ;)
There's always the most overused and lame tactic: flying invisible sorcerers dropping a crapload of fireballs and other AoE spells, especially cones.
The one that's worked best for me is combining dragons and darkness. Just brutal.
Or having the enemy wizard, safe behind his meat shields, readying an action for the party wizard to cast fireball (or other similar spell) and then dropping a wall of force in front of him.
Forcecaging the party's cleric always sends them into a panic, but that might get you accused of being mean. ;)
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trolls with scout levels and vicious weapons... move, attack, move heal, move, attack, move, heal
Anything that requires the party to think in 3 dimensions, ladders, magical floating platforms, etc
Fire giants with fire elemental pets and barrels of throwing oil
Enemies intelligent enough to make the party think they are something they aren't... a sorceror emulating most of the abilities of a vampire with spells...
Pit traps with gelatinous cubes at the bottom
A rust monster, an oblivax, and a living color spray live together at the bottom of a pit trap...
cursed loot
The evil wizard in the tower was a diviner.... he knows what to expect
Forcecaging the party's cleric always sends them into a panic, but that might get you accused of being mean. ;)
I've been responsible for doing that to the Druid of the party, who always seems to come up with the best scemes and ideas (making sure to use the full walls rather than bars to stop his pesky Wildshape) ;D Then the party's fighter gets caught in a Telekinetic Sphere, and the party have to free him before he got too high up (and would have been released after a time to fall for 20d6 damage)...
At the same time, the BBG had a number of Blade Barriers running, and Wraiths with Spring Attack, moving around/under them to attack the party.
(All in all it was a tough epic Lv 13-15 PC/NPC battle which took around 8 hours realtime, and 30+ rounds in game time, with the party going on the defensive straight from the beginning, and using around 5 Heal spells as well as numerous Cure spells during the combat)
An Air Elemental, or an invisible creature with Silence cast on it, moving around the PC spellcasters.
Giant (or large humanoid) rogues with Combat Expertise, Exotic Weapon (Spiked Chain), Improved Trip, and Power Attack. Double normal reach (but can attack at any distance within that reach), trips are touch attacks (allowing full Power Attacks), an extra +4 on the opposed trip roll, a free attack if the trip succeeds, and prone targets take sneak attack damage as well as the extra damage from the Power Attack with a two-handed weapon. Brutal with moderate spellcasting support.
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Giant (or large humanoid) rogues with Combat Expertise, Exotic Weapon (Spiked Chain), Improved Trip, and Power Attack. Double normal reach (but can attack at any distance within that reach), trips are touch attacks (allowing full Power Attacks), an extra +4 on the opposed trip roll, a free attack if the trip succeeds, prone targets take sneak attack damage as well as the extra damage from the Power Attack with a two-handed weapon.
Prone people are not Dex-down, and thus do not normally take sneak dice unless something else renders them Dex-down or flanked. Unsure where the idea that prone people are sneak-bait came from.
A lot of the giants are also too stupid to be good candidates for Combat Expertise, of course :)
Giant (or large humanoid) rogues with Combat Expertise, Exotic Weapon (Spiked Chain), Improved Trip, and Power Attack. Double normal reach (but can attack at any distance within that reach), trips are touch attacks (allowing full Power Attacks), an extra +4 on the opposed trip roll, a free attack if the trip succeeds, prone targets take sneak attack damage as well as the extra damage from the Power Attack with a two-handed weapon.Prone people are not Dex-down, and thus do not normally take sneak dice unless something else renders them Dex-down or flanked. Unsure where the idea that prone people are sneak-bait came from.
A lot of the giants are also too stupid to be good candidates for Combat Expertise, of course :)
Huh, I was looking at the wrong row (also, IIRC, you did lose your Dex bonus in 1st/2nd Ed). Of course, they could always just take up flanking positions when using this tactic.
Hill and stone giants, probably not. Cloud, fire, and frost giants have average or better Int (so using the alternate average array of 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8 would let you put the 13 in Int). Horned devil rogues are great at this tactic (swap out Cleave and Improved Sunder for Combat Expertise and Improved Trip). Ogre magi rogues 3 can also pull this trick.
For DM's using the Gestalt rules: rogue/warlock with Hideous Blow and Beshadowed Blast.
A crap load of kobolds....
Load the dungeon down with heavy loot - adhere to weight rules - wait for PCs to buy cart.
OK now you need kobold rangers, whenever the players go into the dungeon, cave etc. have the kobold slaughter their beasts of burden and make off with the yummies. I managed to rack up 7 mules and donkeys before my players got to a high enough level that they could chase the kobolds and put them to the torch 'as mule murderers'.
Its loads of fun at your players expense without the usual attendant guilt one occasionally suffers after dropping a player off a cliff and smearing her beloved character on the rocks below.
The one that's worked best for me is combining dragons and darkness. Just brutal.
Well I'm always on the lookout for another tactic for my precous dragons. Anything to keep the players from killing them really. So why is darkness good combo'd with a Dragon? Would not the miss chance effect the Dragon too?
Well I'm always on the lookout for another tactic for my precous dragons. Anything to keep the players from killing them really. So why is darkness good combo'd with a Dragon? Would not the miss chance effect the Dragon too?
The one that's worked best for me is combining dragons and darkness. Just brutal.
Dragons have Blindsense to a range of 60 feet. Add Blind Fight, an evil DM smirk, and you're good to go!
Dragons have Blindsense to a range of 60 feet. Add Blind Fight, an evil DM smirk, and you're good to go!Well I'm always on the lookout for another tactic for my precous dragons. Anything to keep the players from killing them really. So why is darkness good combo'd with a Dragon? Would not the miss chance effect the Dragon too?
The one that's worked best for me is combining dragons and darkness. Just brutal.
Hmm...
OK I see the angle now. I wonder how easy or hard it would be to set up. Some dragons (blacks I think) have [i]darkness as a spell like ability but with just a 20' radius and a mere 20% miss chance I suspect we need something with a little more omph.
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My favorite is one mentioned a few months ago...
Your powerful undead spellcaster, as a kind of "counterspell," dimension doors himself in a good hiding place behind the PC Cleric who attempts to Turn Undead. The PC Cleric can "spot" to see if something in the Turn check goes awry, but will probably not realize the vampire (or whatever) isn't really destroyed.
-W. E. Ray
Personal moments of cruel DMing include:
Two old--and one very old--blue dragons under many spells including invisibility, ambush the PCs with their breath weapons...augmented with heighten (by five, of course), clinging, lingering, and empower. Metabreath feats are the quickest way for your PCs to get your players to glare at you with sheer hatred...hehehehe. (Metabreath should have a cap, IMO.)
Next up in my list of infamy...the blast-ificer! (An artificer who blows insane amounts of charges from a wand to do disgusting damage, by being able to apply metamagic feats known to wands/staffs, at the expense of an extra charge for each level the spell would otherwise be increased by.) My players can expect a forecast of fireballs and orbs of fire--accompanied by twin, quicken, and maximize--with a 100% chance of heavy cheese.
...with a 100% chance of heavy cheese.
One of the best bits of being a DM - you can cheese out and it does not count as unbalancing because your next encounter will not be this cheesy tactic - instead it will be another cheesy tactic.
I love this thread.
Your typical square room with doors in the major directions.
PCs coming from the South enter into the room with a 5' wide alley between a waist high barricade on each side extending of the alley. The alley reaches 30' before opening like the top of a "Y".
As they advance half way into the room, Hobgoblins come from the East and West with spears and attack the PCs from behind the baricade. Trapped. Then come in the Hobgoblin Rust Monster trainers to neutralize the threat.
Nothing scares a fighter in Full Plate like a Rust Monster!
I am a seasoned GM but fresh back to D&D after a LONG absence.
This stuff is priceless, thanks guys!
Evard's Black Tentacles plus Cloudkill. (Yoinked from Shadows of the Abyss). Add in some greater shadows just for fun.
A greater doppleganger who has consumed a wizard's brain, armed with a wand of enervation and facing an unsuspecting party.
One time, a DM buddy of mine threw some Mummies wrapped in asbestos at us. So of course, they wouldn't burn.
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Transmuter specialist, Improved Familiar (winter wolf), then spending a minute or so casting practically every buff spell you can imagine, as it affects both the Transmuter and his familiar. Voila! You now have two combat tanks ready to beat the living you-know-what out of the party. "Enlarge" and "Tenser's Transformation" work wonders together, even without adding in some of the fun transmutations from Complete-Mage and Complete-Arcane (or the "Infernal Infusion" spells form FC2).
A Scrag (aquatic troll) with a cloak of elemental protection.
A chromatic dragon that casts Disguise Self before each public appearance to change the color of its scales.
The obvious entrance to a BBEG battle is guarded by a Recipricol Gyre (Spell Compendium) trap.
An entire dungeon based around strength damage.
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The teleporting Bar lguras from the STAP were quite fun - divide and conquer works well against my party.
An Ogre Rogue/Assassin with Improved Invisibility using hit and run tactics while the party journeys to the location of the "adventure."
Reverse Gravity in a cave filled with stalactites.
The obvious entrance to a BBEG battle is guarded by a Recipricol Gyre (Spell Compendium) trap.
This I really like!
Hold person followed by a Coup de Gras. The victim can watch hoplessly as he is disembowled.
Swarm of blink puppies
ooooh puppies.
Evard's Black Tentacles plus Cloudkill. (Yoinked from Shadows of the Abyss). Add in some greater shadows just for fun.
A greater doppleganger who has consumed a wizard's brain, armed with a wand of enervation and facing an unsuspecting party.
Same trick but replace Evard's black tentacles with solid fog.
Same trick but replace Evard's black tentacles with solid fog.
That just reeks of despair. I like it :)
Here's a really simple one that I love. I think it was intended by designers.
Use a yuan-ti abomination's aversion ability on a melee fighter to make him stay away from it. Then have it use baleful polymorph to turn one of the fighter's allies into a snake. Maybe throw in one more normal snake or another weaker yuan-ti.
Put it in a small area so the fighter is either cornered, or must stay in the aversion area and take the Dex penalty.
>:D
Here's a really simple one that I love. I think it was intended by designers.
Use a yuan-ti abomination's aversion ability on a melee fighter to make him stay away from it. Then have it use baleful polymorph to turn one of the fighter's allies into a snake. Maybe throw in one more normal snake or another weaker yuan-ti.
Put it in a small area so the fighter is either cornered, or must stay in the aversion area and take the Dex penalty.
>:D
Oo! Oo! If you can get that to work on the cleric, you take away his healing. That is nasty. >:)
For those of you who prefer SITUATIONAL ways of screwing your players' characters, in my current Age ofWorms campaign, I had the dragon attack the PC's while they were in a boat in the middle of Diamond Lake. It was impossible for any PC's to engage the dragon in melee combat, and the dragon's breath weapon destroyed the boat, which caused several armored PC's to start drowning (one eventually died as a result). The PC wizard teleported away to safety before she could cast a Fly spell on any PC. And thus, 4 dead PC's later, the rest beat a hasty retreat and whined mightily:D:D:D
To add to the Evard's Black Tentacles theme, I'd have several enemy Fighter types with Freedom of Movement cast on them previously then wade in and massacre the already grappled PC's with impunity...
A long time ago while DMing the first edition, when I was a much younger and less mature DM, the following took place:
Me: "A group of wight dwarves attacks you."
Player #1: "What does their color matter?
Player #2: "I don't know, just attack."
Player #3: "Yes, I don't care either, just kill them."
Me: (Trying desperately to keep a straight face.)
Me: (Mentally to myself): Please, just let me get one hit, oh please.
A short while later...
Me: "The wight dwarf hits you, does 4 points of damage, and you lose a level."
Player #1: "I lose a level!?!?!?"
Me: "Yes, the wight dwarf hit you, you lose a level."
Player #1: "Why do you keep mentioning his color?"
Me: "I've never mentioned his color."
Player #1: "?!?!"
Player #2: "You..."
Player #3: "It can't be..."
Me: (Unable to contain the evil grin anymore and laughs evilly.)
Lots of protests followed by dice, snack food, and various books being thrown at me ensue.
They still occasionally mention it as one of the dirtiest tricks I've ever done.
Too bad I'm too mature now to pull that sort of trick...
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However, one of the things I houserule that sort of goes along with this line of thought is changing published abilities for many monsters at the beginning of every campaign. Of course, I tell the players this fact beforehand.
Here's what I mean: a group of 2nd lvl neophytes enters their first dungeon and they encounter a patch of Brown Mold. None of the PCs have ever seen it and none have the appropriate knowledge skill. The player running the Lvl 2 wizard says (because he's been playing for 30+ yrs), "Hey, this radiates cold, right? That means it must absorb and consume heat; I'll try a cold based spell against it." This is BS metagame knowledge pretending not to be. So here's what I say, "You cast your cold based spell on the brown, moldy-like patch and it triples in size, roll a Fort save to see how much cold damage you take!"
Now, from there on out every time THOSE PCs encounter a Brown Mold they know what to do; the next group of young PCs, however, won't. Really, I don't see this as a DM trick, just something important to do to keep PCs from using metagame knowledge of the Monster Manual. Of course, if a PC has the appropriate knowledge skill he or she can make a roll.
Anyway, sometimes Hobgoblins have natural SR; Derros aren't blind; Cockitrices can Dimension Door, whatever...
-W. E. Ray
Thought up another one I'm about to spring on my PCs in Savage Tide:
The Deck of Many things is always nasty for somebody.
Women npcs that play "why dont you and him fight over me"; gotta be subtle.
3 waves of wimpy creatures with high bonuses to hit; do little to moderate damage; and only a few hit points; make the pcs feel tough killing them; have them take moderate damage to soak up a lot of the casters spell power, give em exps like -2 cr or so; then throw in some real mobs of equal cr like a couple fighters and a couple mages; have the mages stand back and fireball and stinky cloud; have the fighters about 20 ft in front of them or so; guarding; maybe throwing daggers or javelins waiting for pc to close; they will either charge or flee or half the party doing each; you will probably take down at least one of the pc's, but should have no deaths unless peeps do something dumb; pc will either think it was a great fight and love the exps or cry, whine and complain that your trying to kill them and give you a lot of garbage, especially the casters, about only fighting once per day; hehe as if they were unionized or something. Top it all off with the warrior type mobs yelling at the top of their lungs the whole time trying to attract more guards or some type of support; just the sound of cries and footfalls in the distance will put some whimper into your pcs.
hehe; have the pcs find a secret room to hide out in; rest and whatever; have it be a safe spot; but when they leave in the morning; have the door exit them to somewhere else in the dungeon.
talking magic items; hehe; screaming magic items are better. You can give someone a planet cracker sword; but if it likes to sing; even if it is on key; and does it all the time and loud; they will give that weapon away; sacrifice it to a diety or something; I have yet to have anyone keep one; even with ludicrous powers.
False doors; hehe pc can spend a lot of time, spells, energy; picks; and whatnot trying to open a door that is not a door but looks like a door; hehe this is a riot expecially when the pcs are looking for a safe room or somewhere to hide out.
Reasonable bad guys; hehe; have a npc speak reasonably; make deals; be honorable and they can get away with murder; literally, in the game.
Fill any dungeon about 6" to 1 foot full of water; add some non harmful algae and watch the pcs go through coniptions; rogues will slosh along and leave wet foot prints; warriors complain their stuff will rust; educated types start talking about every slime, ooze, and jelly under the sun that is going to attack the party; a few muddy patches leave nice sucking sounds as well; and echoes can be a nice touch to put peeps on edge like something is coming. This can be good clean fun; a splashing good time. how much water does leather soak up anyway; can anyone say stains?
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An oldie but a goodie for paranoid or Machiavellian groups:
Roll two or three dice, consult a table and look at the most honest player at the table. Tell him, "You succeed."
He'll tell everyone else that he has no idea what you're talking about. They won't believe him.
It make is even more fun if you then deny that you ever did it, even though they all saw you. This can go on for a long time.
Mordenkainen's Disjunction.
Just plain nasty!
talking magic items; hehe; screaming magic items are better. You can give someone a planet cracker sword; but if it likes to sing; even if it is on key; and does it all the time and loud; they will give that weapon away; sacrifice it to a diety or something; I have yet to have anyone keep one; even with ludicrous powers.
Yes this! It's one of the most enjoyable experiences you can have as a GM, I think. And my experience is the same as Valegrim's -- I don't care what powers it has, no players will ever keep a talking sword.