I was wondering if some people might like to post some awesome/unique 1st level encounters, with pertinent battlefield details. :) For a 4 person party, just one encounter.
Or just stories about some amazing battles.
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CR 2 encounter:
4 Kobolds hide behind a large log (offers cover as a low wall) in the forest to ambush a party. Twenty feet ahead of this log is a small 10x10 area which contains twelve bear traps (roll randomly to determine which squares hold them). The kobolds will attack with slings as soon as somebody is caught and if a tries to approach them they will focus on that member and if that party member happens to make it to the log they will retreat to back to their canopy village. Canopy village is the dungeon for this adventure.
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A 80 by 80 ft square grid map
Each PC starts a corner of the square.
In the center of the map there is scroll that reads thusly:
'First PC to take this scroll to his/her start square gains 1 Level and 1 random magical item.'
Roll initiative.
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A small fort, with 4 towers and 4 sides to defend, where pc and a group of survivors take refuge. There will be an attack of orcs, there will be some of those npc fighting on the party side, and a horde of orcs trying to climb the walls and using a ram to gain control of the fort.
Players should focus on defending, let's say, 2 of the sides of the fort (and you can assume the npcs will keep secure the other 2, or orcs come only from one direction, you chose), and apart from killing enemies before they reach the inside, they should take care of the orcs moving the ram before they can break the fort's doors.
Make climb checks for orcs, and assume they need 3 rounds to climb up and attack (double movement on ground for first round, double climbing movement on second round, get up and attack on third round); the ram attacks once each 2 rounds (the other round goes back to take some meters to charge). You can chose hp, hardness and damage of the ram as you wish, (I would suggest something like 4 attacks before the door is gone), also the ram can't attack in a round in which the players managed to kill some of his 'engineers'.
With this tactical advantage the group should be able to kill a lot of enemies, and it will look pretty epic!
Waves of enemies can continuously arrive, until a commander blows the horn of retreat, or orcs are all dead and last ones escape, or, why not, an unexpected help from elves/whatever change the tide of the fight (a bit like The lord of the rings). Whatever suits you more and you need to do to keep the group alive lol.
I played this kind of encounter twice, first time with a horde of semi-intelligent vermins that were simply climbing the walls and attacking, the second time (in another campaign) with the orcs and the ram mechanism: they had to keep the big door up, because inside there were refugees and poor people that would have been slaughtered otherwise!
Hope you find this useful, cheers
I wonder what a CR1 balor looks using the reduction rules from bestiary...
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I've been working on an opening encounter where a huge Red Dragon attacks the PC's village. The players will need to evacuate the villagers to the "abandoned" smuggler's tunnels beneath the town. Braving burning buildings, panicking animals and the occasional stubborn or foolhardy villager. Sets up the BBEG right away, but presents a more immediate goal (get the villagers to safety).
The smuggler's tunnels are of course trapped, and monster filled. >:-)
barfight! If the fight starts in a bar - then start the players off drunk and unarmored. improvised weapons, the lights goes out - or if there's darkvision in the group something is pushed into the fireplace making the room filled with a thick smoke cloud.
It's hard to hit, making the fight draw out. It's mostly non-lethal so even if the drunken barbarian beats the party the don't die...
A Pit Fiend!
Give them whatever clerical godly protection, then let them just be stunned by the Blasphemie spell. The Pit Fiend looses Hell around them, but oversees them, then goes home. Only some Lemures left with which they have to deal.
A good introduction goes a long way.
I had a some memorable encounters for my group:
A goblin warren. lots of twists and turns and secret tunnels. A few traps, some crude, like an alarm made out of string and some cans. At the center, the goblins had caught a large sized centipede, as the pcs come in, it breaks out of the pit and attacks everything in sight. In my group the PCs retreat, only to find the wounded centipede in another room, curled around a pile of dead goblins.
I had an encounter where the group was investigating a carcass as part of the plot, then giant maggots boiled out of the ground. Not too tough, but creepy. Later, they encountered giant flies.
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I will give a quick little encounter I whipped up.
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Have the players make a DC:25 perception check to spot Slithlok and Snappy inside the cave opening.
Male Troglodyte Ranger 1
CE Medium Humanoid (Reptilian)
Init +2; Senses Darkvision (90 feet); Perception +4
Aura Stench (30 feet, 10 rounds) (DC 14)
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DEFENSE
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AC 22, touch 12, flat-footed 20. . (+4 armor, +2 Dex, +6 natural)
hp 24 (1d10+2d8+9)
Fort +10, Ref +4, Will -1
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OFFENSE
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Spd 30 ft.
Melee Bite (Troglodyte) +0 (1d4+1/20/x2) and
. . Claw x2 (Troglodyte) +0 x2 (1d4+1/20/x2) and
. . Dagger +5 (1d4+3/19-20/x2) and
. . Shortsword +5 (1d6+3/19-20/x2)
Ranged Shortbow, Comp. (Str +3) +4 (1d6+3/20/x3)
Ranger Spells Known (CL 0, 5 melee touch, 4 ranged touch):
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TACTICS
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Before Combat Slithlok waits patiently watching the PC's. If they do not notice him he waits for them to get into bow range and the looses Snappy to attack along with a volley of arrows.
During Combat Slithlok fires his arrows at any obvious spellcasters or other PC's not engaged with snappy.
Morale Slithlok fires arrows until Snappy is dead or the PC's advance on him at which point he withdraws back down the tunnel to the safety of his Home.
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STATISTICS
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Str 16, Dex 14, Con 17, Int 10, Wis 9, Cha 11
Base Atk +2; CMB +5; CMD 17
Feats Great Fortitude, Point Blank Shot
Skills Acrobatics -1, Climb +0, Escape Artist -1, Fly -1, Handle Animal +4, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) +4, Knowledge (Geography) +4, Knowledge (Nature) +4, Perception +4, Ride -1, Stealth +9, Survival +4, Swim +0 Modifiers +4 Stealth in rocky areas
Languages Draconic
SQ Enemies: Humanoids (Goblinoid) (+2 bonus) (Ex), Track +1, Wild Empathy +1 (Ex)
Combat Gear Arrows (20), Dagger, Hide Shirt, Shortbow, Comp. (Str +3), Shortsword;
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SPECIAL ABILITIES
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+4 Stealth in rocky areas (Ex) You gain a bonus to Stealth Checks under the listed conditions.
Darkvision (90 feet) You can see in the dark (black and white vision only).
Enemies: Humanoids (Goblinoid) (+2 bonus) (Ex) +2 to rolls vs Humanoids (Goblinoid).
Point Blank Shot +1 to attack and damage rolls with ranged weapons at up to 30 feet.
Stench (30 feet, 10 rounds) (DC 14) A creature with the stench special ability secretes an oily chemical that nearly every other creature finds offensive. All living creatures (except those with the stench special ability) within 30 feet must succeed on a Fortitude save (DC 10 + 1/2 st
Track +1 +1 to survival checks to track.
Wild Empathy +1 (Ex) Improve the attitude of an animal, as if using Diplomacy.
Male Lizard, Monitor, Young
NN Small Animal
Init +4; Senses Low-Light Vision, Scent; Perception +8
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DEFENSE
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AC 16, touch 15, flat-footed 12. . (+4 Dex, +1 size, +1 natural)
hp 16 (3d8+3)
Fort +6, Ref +7, Will +2
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OFFENSE
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Spd 30 ft., Swimming (30 feet)
Melee Bite (Lizard, Monitor) +4 (1d6+1/20/x2)
Special Attacks Grab
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TACTICS
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Before Combat Snappy waits patiently beside Slithlok awaiting his order to strike.
During Combat Snappy charges any small sized characters hoping to use his grab attack to its full effect. Barring no small characters Snappy attacks the nearest PC.
Morale Snappy fights to the death as it has learned from experience that Slithlok is a cruel and brutal master the rewards failure mercilessly.
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STATISTICS
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Str 13, Dex 19, Con 13, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 6
Base Atk +2; CMB +2 (+6 Grappling); CMD 16 (20 vs. Trip)
Feats Great Fortitude, Skill Focus: Perception
Skills Climb +5, Fly +6, Perception +8, Stealth +16, Swim +9 Modifiers +4 Stealth in undergrowth
Languages
SQ Poison (DC 12) (Ex)
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SPECIAL ABILITIES
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+4 Stealth in undergrowth (Ex) You gain a bonus to Stealth Checks under the listed conditions.
Grab (Small) (Ex) You can start a grapple as a free action if you hit with the designated weapon.
Low-Light Vision See twice as far as a human in low light, distinguishing color and detail.
Poison (DC 12) (Ex) Bite - injury; save Fort DC 14; onset 1 minute; frequency 1/hour for 6 hours; effect 1d2 Dexterity damage; cure 1 save. The save DC is Constitution-based.
Scent (Ex) Detect opponents within 15+ feet by sense of smell.
Swimming (30 feet) You have a Swim speed.
The party starts in a youth soccor league. You have no money for weapons or armor. One of the opposing teams are snotty rich kids who have thier own gang -- I mean party -- and they hate you. Think House Slitheryn.
You can tailor the scenario to where black eyes can escalate to an all out marketside brawl.
I like to use encounters like this as a foil for the main adventure.
The best encounter I had as a player, was years ago before PF. My ranger was walking down the street and got into a fight with a bunch of wererats. The weres figured she was an easy target because she had on a gown. She magicked her high heels and broke thier hands and feet. Unfortunately, her dress was ruined and her date was a fiasco!
I once made a fun bar fight scenario that, since it was entirely based on NPC's, could be manipulated to work for lower levels.
The bar held weapons and spell components/foci at the door so that violence inside could be contained, and the fight inherently required concentration checks to cast spells (DC 11-13 would be appropriate for this type of thing). Then there were 2 big mobs of people attacking everything (mechanically, troops that did 1/2 their minimum damage to themselves each round, and threw 1 chair at a random target somewhere in the bar each round as well), 4 bar workers trying to subdue said mobs (mostly brawlers or warriors with improved unarmed strike), and a few rogues with catch-off guard but no armor. Basically it was supposed to work out that the rogues (which had a grudge against the PC's) would stab them while they were unarmed while the bar workers slowly but surely made their way to subduing everyone, putting a soft time limit on how many rounds the fight could take.
Sadly, the party never went to that bar. But it could probably work (count the CR of the encounter twice, once if they subdue the rogues before anything else (add 1 for terrain), and again with the brawlers added in if they can't).
First ever encounter, a pair of raging, burrowing badgers in a forest. The party approached them and attacked at range (attacks far under badger AC), Badgers charged landing critical hits on the tank. Long fight short all their healing was consumed and they still had poachers, spiders, skeletons, and weregoblins to fight before facing a werewolf and his highly trained pet owlbear in a crumbled forest keep rife with rats and rat swarms.... I am a MEAN GM in hindsight (and foresight =D )
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First Level Thoughts
1. Large groups of enemies should ideally deal very little damage if they successfully hit. Small sized humanoids with improvised weapons are a great method of reducing lethality to avoid a TPK.
2. Large groups of enemies should ideally be easy to hit and kill. AC 12-14 and 6 hp is good if you want to throw a large number of enemies at the group, since that should be about 50% chance to kill them in one hit.
3. An encounter is more interesting with varied terrain. Hazards that aren't simply set CR traps for the PCs to blunder into make the options for combat more than simply trading attacks back and forth.
With that in mind, here's a scenario for you:
Garbage Day
The Midden is a trash-heap of legend. The beggars and vagabonds that pick through this pile of refuse claim that buried within its depths are centuries of lost valuables. Certainly the tribe of goblins that have moved in think so, and the city guard are offering a bounty for any enterprising group willing to risk their necks in getting rid of the pests.
Set up the map with several hazards that can be used by either group. Squares filled with loose garbage that function as quicksand. Fungal pods bloated on volatile gasses that explode in a 1d6 fireball (DC 15 Reflex half) in a 10 ft. radius if you hit them with a burning torch in melee or as a ranged throw. Towering piles of trash that can be pushed over onto opponents with a DC 14 Strength check to deal 3d6 bludgeoning damage. A broken siege weapon that looks as likely to explode in the user's face as it is to fire. Plenty of spots to gain cover bonus, concealment, plenty of difficult terrain.
Give the group 6-9 goblin enemies to fight, have some hiding or out of line of sight, if they bother to attempt to scout before charging in reward them with a little scene of the goblins demonstrating a few hazards against each other. You can increase the number of enemies by removing the goblin's equipment in place of improvised weapons such as planks of wood (improvised clubs) with nail studs (improvised morningstars), rusty pieces of metal (improvised daggers) or the like. Have them sling rocks as ranged weapons or throw trash. Your loot can be any shiny valuables the goblins have gathered from the trash.
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| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
First Level Thoughts
1. Large groups of enemies should ideally deal very little damage if they successfully hit. Small sized humanoids with improvised weapons are a great method of reducing lethality to avoid a TPK.
2. Large groups of enemies should ideally be easy to hit and kill. AC 12-14 and 6 hp is good if you want to throw a large number of enemies at the group, since that should be about 50% chance to kill them in one hit.
3. An encounter is more interesting with varied terrain. Hazards that aren't simply set CR traps for the PCs to blunder into make the options for combat more than simply trading attacks back and forth.
With that in mind, here's a scenario for you:
Garbage Day
The Midden is a trash-heap of legend. The beggars and vagabonds that pick through this pile of refuse claim that buried within its depths are centuries of lost valuables. Certainly the tribe of goblins that have moved in think so, and the city guard are offering a bounty for any enterprising group willing to risk their necks in getting rid of the pests.
Set up the map with several hazards that can be used by either group. Squares filled with loose garbage that function as quicksand. Fungal pods bloated on volatile gasses that explode in a 1d6 fireball (DC 15 Reflex half) in a 10 ft. radius if you hit them with a burning torch in melee or as a ranged throw. Towering piles of trash that can be pushed over onto opponents with a DC 14 Strength check to deal 3d6 bludgeoning damage. A broken siege weapon that looks as likely to explode in the user's face as it is to fire. Plenty of spots to gain cover bonus, concealment, plenty of difficult terrain.
Give the group 6-9 goblin enemies to fight, have some hiding or out of line of sight, if they bother to attempt to scout before charging in reward them with a little scene of the goblins demonstrating a few hazards against each other. You can increase the number of enemies by removing the goblin's equipment in place of improvised weapons such as...
I am stealing this adding an subplot about otyughs add running my group through it tomorrow. Love you man.
In 3.5, we had a party that was mostly sorcerers and wizards, maybe a cleric or fighter, and my rogue archer.
We were fighting kobolds wielding slings or crossbows. My tactic was to move into the room, shoot, move out of the room, hide and reload, move into the room, shoot, move out of the room, hide and reload, rinse and repeat.
I got hit for 5 or 6 damage, leaving me with just 1 or 2 hit points. I still did my thing, which did 2d6 damage with a shortbow and sneak attack.
Meanwhile, the mages kept dropping. Eventually, even my guy dropped.
But the familiars. Those glorious familiars! While all the PCs were bleeding out, the magic pets killed all the kobolds.
* * *
I recently ran a homebrew 5e 1st level adventure. The PCs each got an envelope with an address, a time, and a key. The PCs met on a dark and stormy night at an old "abandoned" manor house. They decided to explore it--and keep out of the rain. Most rooms had 3 or more doors, so there was lots and lots of player agency and no railroading. Many encounters moved from room to room, with hazards or additional creatures complicating matters. There were lots of different monster types: constructs, plants, vermin, animals, undead, fey, oozes, even "fiends" and "hags." Lots of traps (but not enough to make the PCs paranoid), puzzles, and secret passages.
5-8 level 1 human rogues with gang up and combat expertise as feats. must have enough room to maneuver
Naked sexy people, friendly
Maybe a fight with chutes and ladders? Lots of movement, with lots of relatively weak creatures that can benefit from the PCs being prone (+4 to hit) or climbing (no Dex to AC), but not doing tons of damage (or maybe doing status effects or ability damage or giving out little minor curses like a cumulative -1 to attacks or ability checks), because PCs only have 6 to 12 hit points.
Level 1 or 2 is also a good time to use Sunder. PCs don't have a sentimental connection their weapons or shields yet. Disarm is fun too. Pretty much anything targeting CMD instead of AC, if only because things targeting CMD rarely do hit point damage.
my favorite low level encounter is from the burning plague.
a roughly 40 by 30 cave room with a 20 foot tall cliff on one side. The room is filled with stalactites and stalagmites that can be used for cover. on the cliff are 6 or so kobolds with crossbows. there are pitons, but no ropes on the cliff wall. one of the kobolds is a sorcerer.
to make it slightly fair, the crossbow kobolds are sick with con damage.
Something that could kill the entire party in one round, but doesn't want to.
A red dragon or beholder, for example.
I like to drag it out to three or four.