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It's late, I'm up, and honestly my mood has me playfully musing about really twisted and mean things that BBEGs can legally do within the rules, which would be seen as absolutely horrible and probably mean spirited and probably get you some dirty looks.
"Perfect!" I think to myself. That's just what I love. I'm a very nasty sort of GM who has a love/love relationship with players that's disguised as a hate/hate relationship, you understand. I'd describe myself as Lawful Good when working with the players. I want them to succeed, I help them with the rules, point out tricks they might not have known of, happily give advice for fine tuning characters, and rarely ban anything or try to rain on their parade.
However, the moment it comes time for building encounters and such, it's like getting slapped with a atonement (lawful evil) spell as I'm setting down to write some notes. The name of the game for what I'm going to put the PCs through is frighteningly similar to Satan's trials against Job: "If it's legal" is the name of the game. As long as it's within the confines of the rules, prepare to suffer and suffer mercilessly...
Of course, that's also because it seems to make it all the nicer when you succeed. I mean, nobody talks about that time when you wandered through the cave and slaughtered a bunch of goblins 'cause they were trying to melee you with their little short-swords, as you casually approached the hordes of loot in the back...
They talk about that one game where they narrowly managed to hold on by the skin of their teeth, when the cleric had fallen into that flaming pit trap and was trying to climb out while on fire, and the goblins where chucking nets on the fighter to keep him entangled, and peppering the party with feces covered arrows inside small tunnels that forced them to suffer squeezing penalties, and yet - somehow - managed to overcome and push to, where they found the treasure composed of so many copper pieces, stolen ale, and livestock.
So what's the point? Well I'm feelin' a little diabolical, so this is the thread to really let out the nastiest, darkest, most depraved and cruel encounter ideas possible, without fear of being called a mean GM. Nay, this is the thread where being called a dirty rotten GM is a compliment. When Pit Fiends look up to you to get ideas, you know you're in the right thread!
I'll start if off with some really nasty ones.
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Now you Don't
This dirty trick basically involves afflicting the party with blindness via magic resetting traps. It's simple, and it's mean. The trap is a resetting proximity or location trap that affects multiple targets (say anyone within the room) with the blindness spell (DC 13 to negate) each round. The CR is 5 (1,600 XP) and requires a DC 27 Perception/Disable Device check to disable.
The idea is that anyone who's in the area has to make a Fortitude save each round or be afflicted by blindness/deafness or be permanently blind. Ideally, the party should encounter trouble while inside the room. Naturally, enemies with blind-sight, constructs, undead, or anything immune to blindness will work (creatures with SR 24+ are immune as well) would be ideal in such a trapped dungeon. Each round that the party has to spend slugging through the enemies (who may be blocking the exit to the room) they have to make a new saving throw. No matter their level, there's always a 5% chance they biff it and end up permanently blind until someone can restore their sight via a spell.
The thing that makes this particularly nasty is the fact that unless the party is packing a lot of remove blindness and similar, it can be devastating trying to trudge your way through a dungeon while blind. Even getting back out of the dungeon would be a horrible test of endurance. Weenie monsters are now frightening threats.
Blindness Trap (CR 5) = 1,600 XP
2 Bloody Efreeti Skeletons (CR 6) = 4,800 XP
Total Encounter = CR 9 (6,400 XP)
The efreeti skeletons have fast healing 5, DR 5/bludgeoning, 65-85 HP each (if animated in a desecrate spell), immunity to cold and fire, large size (granting reach), and should probably be able to hold the party reasonably long enough for people to begin failing some saving throws.
The earliest the PCs might encounter this mean encounter is about 6th level (APL+3) as an "epic" encounter. At 6th level, good base Fortitude saves are +5 and poor ones are +2. Assuming a +1 cloak of resistance and a +2 Con, that's a 25% chance to be blinded each round for a good Fortitude, and a 40% chance for a bad one. By 9th level, base Fortitude saves are up to +6 (good) and +3 (bad). Even with a +2 resistance and +3 Con, that still means a 10% chance per round to be blinded for a warrior, and a 25% chance per round to be blinded for someone with a bad fortitude.
You could also toss hordes of low CR skeletons at them, just to stall. For bonus points, adding a CR 3 trap that spams inflict light wounds on everything in the area is like giving everything they're fighting fast healing, while whittling down the party a few HP every round as well.
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Beautiful. I'll share one of my favorites from 3.5 (I don't remember its stats)
Traditional pit trap 20-30 feet deep. Tt the bottom of the pit is a simple metal box with its lid propped open by a generally weak piece of wood. Inside the box is about 6" of acid. (the box being 1-1.5 feet deep) the first person to fall (usually the person who triggered the trap) breaks the wooden beam as he falls and the lid drops on him trapping him in the acid (along with the tradition 2-3d6 falling damage) Any other party members nearby will also drop landing on top of the lid and adding their weight to what he must lift in order to get himself out of the acid vat.
Weak monsters + buncha unassociated Wizard levels
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Something horrible I cooked up as the start of a campaign.
The Mouldering Beast
Step 1.
select one Remorhaz. immune to fire and cold, constantly generates heat.
Step 2.
introduce a Brown mold, Absorbs heat + doubles in size each round the source of heat is near it, deals cold damageRemorhaz 3,200 exp ( cr 7)
Brown mold patch 600 exp (cr 2)
Chuckling in amusement as the party realizes that the brown stuff that has been advancing on their camp for the past hour at a speed of inches will kill them?
priceless.
Brown mold grows from fire not heat, you would need some sort of open flame. (Sleeping Dragon who snores fire?)
Nasty idea though. Could even be an entire adventure as the mold is advancing on a small town.
The party lays down to sleep. 3 Greater Earth Elementals emerge from the ground below them, knocking several of them prone. 2 slams at +21 for 2d10+10 per hit and a 10ft reach? Not even a 13th level barbarian's going to survive 1 round of attacks if all three of them can hit him.
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Had my party fight a magus that was good at disarming he would then get up close to a fighter with the shine-yest weapon after disarm he would cast disintegrate on it and CHOOSE to fail the save on the weapon ... dust in the wind. Fighter = Sad Panda
RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32
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You Need To Leave That Alone
The dungeon has one entrance/exit and it is sealed with a massive door with a complicated lock. The key is obscure, and possibly not even physical. It could be music, for example. Whatever the case, the door is difficult to open. Once the party is inside, the door slams shut and locks. The dungeon is a labyrinth, with only one true path leading from challenge room to challenge room. The challenges are pretty standard and appropriate to level, but draining of resources. Each room has a door that shuts tight once the party enters. These doors are not difficult to open, but they are considered stuck. They also open into the room entered.
The last room is simply a large room with a raised platform with the MacGuffin treasure. The treasure is in a slight depression upon the pedestal that fits it snugly. Think the golden idol in Raiders of the Lost Ark. The party may notice the ceiling is filled with many, many holes large enough to fit their arms through. The treasure is a trap, but not one that would be easily spotted or disabled. If the treasure is removed, water jets out of many of the holes and fills the room. The party can't stop of the water and they must open the door in order to prevent the room filling completely. If they open the door, the water rushes out into the next section but doesn't slow down. They only bought themselves time. They must remember how exactly to reach each door, and each time they do the water is higher. Each door opened lowers the water level. The final door drains all of the water and stops the trap.
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One I've been meaning to try:
Glyph of Warding with Feast of Ashes (or Suggestion, if you want something more concrete) that triggers when you get near the mad witch's table full of poisonous mushrooms.
Poisonous and deliberately MISLABELED mushrooms, to boot.
Another good one would be a Glyph of Warding with Pernicious Poison in it, mixed with a pit trap full of venomous snakes. Fall in pit, trigger glyph, get bitten by snakes. Works great with spiders or scorpions, too! Or Wyverns. You know, whatever floats your boat. The wyverns would be good for a Jabba the Hut style pit trap, where you're dumped into an arena kind of thing.
Dotted for interest. When I have more time I may contribute with a few nasty examples from a Grimtooth-esque dungeon I made some time ago... provided I can find the thing. I managed to befuddle/scare a mid-to-high-level group (caster and rogue included) with purely mechanical traps. No magic, just deviousness.
I'm also in the process of developing an exceedingly unfair dungeon done in the spirit of Tucker's Kobolds. I'd like to share it, but my players might be watching. Maybe through notes or once I've ran them through it? :P
A bunch of speedy monks who like to disarm then run away are always fun for ruining martial classes' days.
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We need to get the Hell out of here!
A room calf deep in water. On the floor and walls grows Azure Fungus, inside the room are a few Shambling Mounds with a pack of Shocker Lizards running around.
Every time a Shambling Mound is hit by an attack that deals shock damage, by the Azure Fungus or the Shocker Lizards for example, the Shambling Mound gains 1d4 points to it's con for 1 hour.
I can't see... OW THAT HURT!
A Dark Stalker with a few Dark Creeper minions running around. The Stalker opens up with Deeper Darkness, then the Creepers rush forward and sneak attack like crazy. The Stalker performs similar tactics, dropping more Deeper Darkness if the party tries to dispel or cancel it out.
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Seemed Like a Good Idea At the Time..
Party is breaking and entering into a monastery at night. The door to the treasure room has a Suggestion spell on it, causing whoever trips the trap to grab a nearby mallet and bang the gong sitting next to the door, raising the alarm throughout the monastery.
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Got a party that spends all their free time drinking and whoring? Crabs are not a disease, Mr. Paladin.
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Going Down!
After the party has acquired some power and magical wherewithal, have them find themselves inside a tower which they must ascend, however make sure there are no stairs or any other *easy* way of going up. Make it a TALL tower - like 300 ft at minimum. If your players are like my players, they will simply hop on a magic carpet, cast overland flight, fly, or something similar and simply begin to fly straight up.
When they get 20 feet from the top, a trap with a proximity trigger trips, activing runes of anti-magic field all the way down the sides of the tower.
Cackle with glee as your party begins to free fall.
Bonus DM points if the 1st character's impact is enough to break through the floor, revealing another 50 foot drop ending in spikes or gelatinous cubes.
if you have a party that has a fighter that or ragechemist or other big melee low will save a murderous command haunt.
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Got a party that spends all their free time drinking and whoring? Crabs are not a disease, Mr. Paladin.
Any Paladin worth his/her lay on hands is clean shaven or at least modestly trimmed. ;)
Also, remove disease removes parasites, so humorously yeah, they are a disease. :P
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So far I've been happy with how the thread is turning out. Plenty of nasty surprises, and lots of those posted are really funny. I particularly like the fire-expanding mold trick, and would be exceptionally great with any creature immune to cold that uses a fire-attack (a pink dragon would work wonders).
Because traps are awesome when used in encounters, I'm going to post a few more involving them.
The Bigger They Are...
A common trap that occurs in a lot of my games involve small creatures. Most adventurers and would-be intruders to a lair of small-sized creatures are medium sized. This includes small-sized folks on medium mounts and such. So what would be a really effective trap in a kobold warren, goblin lair, or gnome hovel?
Pressure sensitive traps. Simple concept really. Area traps (anywhere from 1+ squares) which activate when something of a certain size and/or weight steps on them. It can drive intruders (like the party) bonkers, as literally every step they take may be dangerous, but kobolds, goblins, gnomes, and other small-sized individuals can prance merrily across them with no risk of setting off the traps. It makes hit and run tactics even sweeter for these small individuals, because the intruders cannot safely give chase for fear of setting the next round of traps.
Traps that require attack rolls are also exceptionally great to use in these sorts of environments. If medium sized creatures have to squeeze to fit, they suffer a -4 penalty to attacks and AC, so traps that use attack rolls in these environments are great, especially if they target touch AC.
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Here's an examples of some encounters from my games, where some of these dirty tricks were used by kobolds (of course).
Scene #1
The party is exploring an old ruin dug into from a mine, where kobolds have moved in and are currently holding. The party is wandering down a tunnel, when the barbarian spots a group of 4 kobolds behind some overturned barrels, armed with crossbows. They're about 60 ft. away from the Barbarian. Naturally, the barbarian sees they are using cover and crossbows to have a ranged advantage (small-sized creatures with dex bonuses and natural armor wearing armor and also possessing cover means a ranged battle would be foolish), so she decides to charge them, what with them being within charging range. So she makes it about 1/2 way there and then suddenly the floor falls out from under here. She lands about 20 ft. down. Kobold #1 pushes the barrel into the pit, which cracks open and spills lamp oil everywhere. Kobold #2 tosses an alchemist fire into the pit to begin the BBQ. Now the rest of the party have to deal with the kobolds shooting from across the 20 ft. pit in a 5 ft., while the flambe barbarian scrambles to climb out of the pit, while the tunnel fills with smoke creating concealment, which the four kobolds use to Stealth and then sneak off in the confusion like ninjas.
Scene #2
In another game, the party ends up chasing a group of kobolds skipping through a tunnel while wielding shields and using total defense actions (long story short, hitting them in these cramped conditions is bad, since the kobolds have +1 size, +2 dex, +3 armor, +2 shield, +1 natural, +4 dodge, and the party is at -4 to hit due to squeezing). The party members decide that trying to shoot at them is doing little good, so they take off across the floor. Like all sorts of nasty, they step on the pressure-sensitive tiles and *WHOOSE* get so much face full of +10 to hit, 1d12+4 greataxe from the traps. Turns out the Disable Device DC is really low, but the Perception DC is pretty good; curse those kobolds! "Medic!"
Scene #3
In yet another game, which was run as a one-shot with some old friends, the party is exploring yet another kobold cave to try and rescue some kidnapped victims. The party includes a goblin fighter who is the only small character in the party, and thus the only one who can comfortably move through the kobold tunnels. At one point he decides to explore one of the kobold's tiny tunnels which they can squeeze through to reach hidden caches of weapons and such. Inside in a room filled with weapons, alchemical supplies, potions, etc. However, the most curious bit was a pedestal covered in money, with a bowl of gemstones, etc.
Surrounding this pedestal is a giant ring on the floor with words in common, dwarven, and gnome kind of haphazardly scribbled on it saying "free treasure to good home". Naturally the goblin was highly suspicious, but his curiosity and greed slowly got the better of him. Carefully, he poked at the pedestal with his sword. Nothing happened. He carefully stepped on the ring to get to the treasure. Nothing happened. He carefully removes the bowl of quartz crystals from the pedestal. Nothing happens. He tries taking some of the coins. Nothing happens...
At this point, everyone around the table is trying to decide what to do. It's so weird, and yet there's no trap going off. One of the other PCs yells "Hey, is there anything special in there?", to which the goblin's player laughs and yells back "Uh, no...just um, a cave and stuff..." as he puts his backpack down and begins shoveling lots of treasure into the bag. Many many coins, the quartz crystals, the gold-plated bowl, etc. Until he was nearly bursting with treasure. Finally confident that the treasure wasn't trapped, since he had basically looted all of it with no repercussions; he figured it must have been some sort of psychological trick. Make it too easy, he thought, and nobody would be brave enough to try! Or so he thought...
Now very much in the realm of his heavy load and a bit beyond, he waddled back across the giant ring on the floor to head to the exit. At which point, he felt an unfamiliar "click" in the floor. Having now exceeded the weight allowance for the pressure plates, he springs an acid spray from the ceiling similar to a fire-sprinkler.
Outside the tunnel, the rest of the party hears something akin to *swish, shhhhhh* "Aiiiiiiiiieeeee!!" from the tunnel. "Do you think he's alright?" asked the sorcerer. "Maybe you should go in and get him" commented the wizard. "I'm sure he's fine..." retorted the sorcerer, who had no desire to crawl through the cat-door sized tunnel on his stomach...
Miraculously, the goblin fighter managed to survive the trap's gratuitous damage, and crawls out of the tunnel, his ragged bag of ill begotten loot still in tow. "I vote...we take these...and find a healer." was the goblin's idea, having all of about 2 or so hit points remaining out of his full allotment.
Ashiel, you are a sick, evil, twisted bastard. I love you.
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this wouldnt work though, once they leave the anitmagic field they resume funcion on what ever spell they castGoing Down!
After the party has acquired some power and magical wherewithal, have them find themselves inside a tower which they must ascend, however make sure there are no stairs or any other *easy* way of going up. Make it a TALL tower - like 300 ft at minimum. If your players are like my players, they will simply hop on a magic carpet, cast overland flight, fly, or something similar and simply begin to fly straight up.
When they get 20 feet from the top, a trap with a proximity trigger trips, activing runes of anti-magic field all the way down the sides of the tower.
Cackle with glee as your party begins to free fall.
Bonus DM points if the 1st character's impact is enough to break through the floor, revealing another 50 foot drop ending in spikes or gelatinous cubes.
Actually, the anti-magic runes run down the entire side of the tower. So after they trigger the trap, suddenly the whole tower is an anti-magic area.
Ashiel, you are a sick, evil, twisted bastard. I love you.
Why thank you. ^-^
Also, the goblin fighter was being played by my younger brother whom I love so much. :3
Deeper Darkness conceals a Prismatic Wall, capping a gate to the elemental plane of fire, where some Ifreeti await their next meal.
Stripped and cooked. I'll have a McAdventurer, please. Hold the mayo.
Runes don't have to be visible, not for a trap like this. Symbol of Death is a Rune, but once triggered you don't have to see it to be affected by it.
The intent of this trap is simple. When you reach 20 feet from the top you trigger an alarm that causes a bunch of Runes to unleash an anti-magic field.
If you want to look at it another way, the runes are just fluff. When the trap triggers, arcane writing running down the tower lights up, and all magic snuffs out.
Some of them do, not all of them. But these aren't 'normal' runes. Just, just arcane magical writing really.
Combine a tank creature with Awesome Blow with something that creates Blade Barriers. One of my camapign capping encounters involved a Goristro and Maralith. The party's tank ended up going through Blade Barriers 4 times!
Stone golem made of flint, on a wooden rope bridge, over a pit of boiling candle wax. Go ahead, hit em with your steel weapons, I dare you!
(Stolen from Grimtooth's traps)
Stone golem made of flint, on a wooden rope bridge, over a pit of boiling candle wax. Go ahead, hit em with your steel weapons, I dare you!
(Stolen from Grimtooth's traps)
This seriously reminds me of the trap in a high level game I had once. The party fell through a pit trap into a room filled with stone golems and a giant black pudding...
Another time there were goblins who figured they wanted to be able to light their bombs on the go, so naturally the lil' morons decided to make armor out of flint, so they could scratch their armor and light their bombs. The fact that their armor was essentially a giant lighter, and they were covered in fire-bombs never seemed like a Bad Idea (TM) to them.
Of course, the party realized it early on, and decided they would simply subdue them with nonlethal damage, since I explained that due to the bizarre nature of this crappy armor, it would likely cause the goblins to explode due to their heavy use of poorly prepared black-powder bombs hanging all over them. The party was totally cool with this. They were around 4th level or so, and there weren't that many goblins.
The goblins, just to create laughs, all closed to melee with the party, who was of course hesitant to clobber the goblins for fear of causing their explosives to go off (I explained that due to when they are struck for lethal damage, they would suffer 1 point of fire damage, and due to the really shoddy way they were storing their powder, they would ignite when they took fire damage). It was a special rule for this unusual armor and unusual explosives they were using (kind of like how goblin weapons screw up on a natural 1), so please don't think I blow of the gunslingers in our group every time someone casts fireball. :P
It was all laughs and giggles up until the party's monk got a turn. Thinking it would be funny, just after they are swarmed in melee and packed tightly, he clobbers one of the goblins for lethal damage (despite being the only one in the party to not suffer penalties for inflicting non-lethal damage) and sets one of the goblins off. Ok, it deals 1d6 fire damage in a small radius burst. Of course, it's right next to another goblin, who's right next to another goblin, etc; with all the goblins surrounding the party.
So there's a chain-reaction of exploding goblins. All the goblins are basically dead, and yet everyone in the party got blasted nearly to death, except the monk who was able to avoid the blasts due to evasion. The monk basically got the ಠ_ಠ look from the party. :P
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Not All Are Created Equal
It's a pretty widely accepted that that certain NPCs just get way more love from certain feats than PCs can ever hope for. The vital stike feats kind of suck, unless you happy to be a Tyrannosaurus; in which case they rock. Diehard can more than double the effective HP of low level minions. Combat Defense Training is pretty awesome on any enemy with lots of HD. It's not hard to see that some options are really nice for enemies.
But some are just plain nasty. Which leads me to the next post. Your players may abandon your table for good after this. Good! Who needs 'em! The bums! σ_σ
Er, actually, I mean this is a very good way to scare the crap out of your players and push them onto the retreat with really minor foes by just making use of certain combat tactics you probably wouldn't have previously thought of.
I'd like to mention two game mechanics that you may not have considered before. Spring Attack (yes the feat everyone whines about because it's kinda sucky and doesn't work with Vital Strike) and Burrow speed. Now let that sink in for a moment. Yep, you got it. Rush up, attack, retreat back into the ground. Retaliation is a b%%~@.
That's not bad enough though. Oh no. σ_σ
Spring Attack + Incorporeal foes...
Yes dear readers. Imagine the horror as your party is beset by creatures like wraiths or advanced shadows whose feats include Dodge, Mobility, and Spring attack. They phase through a solid object, slap some poor fool for ability damage, then phase away; leaving your party dazed and confused...
Well Ashiel you've done it. I've been working on drawing up a backup character since my present one is in very dire straits and now I have this wonderful idea courtesy of you.
I'll have to draw up a spring attacker with burrow and see if I can make him effective maybe a melee druid of some kind.
Well Ashiel you've done it. I've been working on drawing up a backup character since my present one is in very dire straits and now I have this wonderful idea courtesy of you.
I'll have to draw up a spring attacker with burrow and see if I can make him effective maybe a melee druid of some kind.
Muahaha. Wonderful! Glad to help!
<(^-^)>==彡☆ミ☆彡☆ミ☆ミ☆彡☆
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One of the toughest Cursed Items in the game is Dust of Sneezing and Choking + spell Magic Aura (to make appear as regular dust) will wreck any group. Can work in almost any setting but here is one.
Foreshadow the dungeon crawl with description of dusty rooms as they travel through several with no effect they get use to the dustyness.
The Trap room has a floor covered in the cursed dust + magic aura to look like common dust. Under the thick layer of "Dust" is a Summon Monster Trap/ Air Elemental (set trigger so they are all in the room. Base room size on the size of Elemental you are summoning whirlwind ability. It will kick up a cloud of "Dust"
Filling a diameter 1/2 whirlwinds height. Even if they make the Fort-15 DC (for 3d6 con dmg) Those who succeed on the saving throw are nonetheless disabled by choking (treat as stunned) for 5d4 rounds (min time 5 rounds).
At this point they are all yours... You have options, depending on how/what you set dungeon with.
1. Summon monster trap summons extra elementals who whirl around the stunned PC's taking slam dmg round.
2. Rogues come in and backstab the flatfooted PC's.
3. Alchemical Acid. Fills room 10d6 round or less deadly single exposure each round + fort save vs inhaled poison fumes.
4. Green Slime 1d6 con dmg a round. Or Yellow Mold
5. Shocking floor trap / Chamber of Blades / Fireball Trap / Frost Fang trap /
Insanity Mist Trap / Cone of Cold Trap
*** you name it it.....
Not All Are Created Equal
It's a pretty widely accepted that that certain NPCs just get way more love from certain feats than PCs can ever hope for. The vital stike feats kind of suck, unless you happy to be a Tyrannosaurus; in which case they rock. Diehard can more than double the effective HP of low level minions. Combat Defense Training is pretty awesome on any enemy with lots of HD. It's not hard to see that some options are really nice for enemies.But some are just plain nasty. Which leads me to the next post. Your players may abandon your table for good after this. Good! Who needs 'em! The bums! σ_σ
Er, actually, I mean this is a very good way to scare the crap out of your players and push them onto the retreat with really minor foes by just making use of certain combat tactics you probably wouldn't have previously thought of.
I'd like to mention two game mechanics that you may not have considered before. Spring Attack (yes the feat everyone whines about because it's kinda sucky and doesn't work with Vital Strike) and Burrow speed. Now let that sink in for a moment. Yep, you got it. Rush up, attack, retreat back into the ground. Retaliation is a b&&!!.
That's not bad enough though. Oh no. σ_σ
Spring Attack + Incorporeal foes...
Yes dear readers. Imagine the horror as your party is beset by creatures like wraiths or advanced shadows whose feats include Dodge, Mobility, and Spring attack. They phase through a solid object, slap some poor fool for ability damage, then phase away; leaving your party dazed and confused...
I've done this sort of stuff to my players plenty of times. Their counter is easy though, they just ready an attack when the monster is within reach. However if those monsters also have reach the pc's would either need to have equal or greater reach themselves or the strike back feat which has a requirement of bab +11..........
Cast reach invisibility then permanancy on a sphere of anhilation congratulations it is now invisible and put it behind a lead door.
Well Ashiel you've done it. I've been working on drawing up a backup character since my present one is in very dire straits and now I have this wonderful idea courtesy of you.
I'll have to draw up a spring attacker with burrow and see if I can make him effective maybe a melee druid of some kind.
Burrow is an alchemist spell too- 3rd level. Go Vivisectionist and get sneak attack along with your burrowing spring attack, you can even go with haste to get even more speed. You can go with elemental body later for the ability to breathe underground. (or is it that you don't need to breathe, I forget)
Take those spring attacking, incorpreal undead and put them in a maze or other area where the PCs are all almost always next to a wall but can't get anywhere. Almosts TPK'ed the entire party with my shadow maze.
Fun with Illusory Wall
The current version of illusory wall makes it a bit of a RAW powerup over the 3.5 version.
Although the caster can see through his illusory wall, other creatures cannot, even if they succeed at their will save (but they do learn that it is not real).
There's clearly a lot of evil fun to be had with a wall that the caster can see through but everyone else can't. If used properly, this is more powerful for a BBEG than invisibility could ever be. The goal is to mitigate as many detection abilities as possible (using perhaps nondetection) and make the wall in a location where detection via careful study and interaction would be very impractical -- like a randomly selected section of a dungeon wall in a large room. Silent spells would also be obviously strong in this configuration. Spells that don't originate from the caster would also be a good choice. Having a few ranks in stealth wouldn't be a bad idea either, although if distance/range is used properly, the perception distance penalties should be massive.
An extension of this idea is to create an entire system of tunnels through a dungeon that can only be accessed via illusory walled entrances well out of reach. This would allow a BBEG to pepper PCs with spells while being undetected. The goal in this situation would for the PCs to be able to survive the BBEG's onslaught long enough to either escape, figure out the illusory walls, or simply withstand the attacks.
Take those spring attacking, incorpreal undead and put them in a maze or other area where the PCs are all almost always next to a wall but can't get anywhere. Almosts TPK'ed the entire party with my shadow maze.
I had a maze populated by Trolls and various undead, all of which carried 100gp gems. There were also 100gp gems hidden throughout the maze, in the walls and so on.
The maze was 250 diameter. In the center was the creator/bbeg, a 15th level Necromancer. He was wearing a ring of fire resistance and a necklace of adaptation, and hiding inside the furnace. He had a real fondness for the Magic Jar spell, which requires a 100gp gem as the "jar"... so... which one of the many 100gp gems around there is the jar?
Even if you resist the magic Jar, there are still plenty of Trolls and undead to possess, and then go kamikaze. It may also explain why some of them are carrying around level 1 sorc/wiz wands that they can't even use (like True Strike, Silent Image, Obscuring Mist and Grease).
While applying the same template several times is a gray area of the RAW, regardless you'll have a CR <10 monster that's as dangerous as a CR 16+ monster. At least.
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Fun with Illusory Wall
The current version of illusory wall makes it a bit of a RAW powerup over the 3.5 version.
Although the caster can see through his illusory wall, other creatures cannot, even if they succeed at their will save (but they do learn that it is not real).There's clearly a lot of evil fun to be had with a wall that the caster can see through but everyone else can't. If used properly, this is more powerful for a BBEG than invisibility could ever be. The goal is to mitigate as many detection abilities as possible (using perhaps nondetection) and make the wall in a location where detection via careful study and interaction would be very impractical -- like a randomly selected section of a dungeon wall in a large room. Silent spells would also be obviously strong in this configuration. Spells that don't originate from the caster would also be a good choice. Having a few ranks in stealth wouldn't be a bad idea either, although if distance/range is used properly, the perception distance penalties should be massive.
Don't forget to add the Project Image spell.
Now you REALLY don't know where the wizard is. His image is there, casting spells at you, but you don't know where he is in the massive room.Where did the GM put him? Why, sitting in a comfy chair, within an inset in the wall, which is 85' up, of course (have a 100' ceiling). And then there's the problem that the entire room has a "layer" of Illusory walls... so arcane sight and the like tells you jack.
Anyhow, one of his first spells are... you guessed it: Wall of Force on the entrance.
Another brilliant and cunning addition by Ashiel. What would we do without you?
Okay, or my additions. Ive been reading grimtooth lately....
The Exploding Torch
Hide a Fuse Grenade in a torch. When lit it will explode.
Moreover, it will echo in any cavern and alert everybody to your presence.
In fact you can hide other things in light sources, like insanity mist in the lamps.
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This Trap series is set up in a long corridor.
It is initially triggered when an unlucky delver steps on a pressure plate in the floor, causing a stone door to drop out of the ceiling behind the party, blocking the way they came. The edges of the door land on C shaped rocker plates, that push bars out of the walls into sockets in the door to lock it. The Bars have a sawtooth ratchet on the bottom so they only slide one way.
Inset into the door is a large gong, and when the door slams down the shock will ring the gong. This will shatter the delicate glass plugs set into the ceiling, allowing a large vat of acid to drain into the corridor through sprayers much like a modern fire suppression system.
As the acid burns the delvers and soaks the corridor two things will happen. The first is that as the level of acid in the tank drops it will move a lever that was attached to a float in the tank, causing a door at the opposite end of the corridor to slowly rise from the ground to seal other end of the hall. The party will naturally sprint for the exit before it closes.
But the acid soaking also triggers a secondary effect of dissolving the limestone tiles on the walls that hold back arrow traps. As the tiles dissolve, the hall will be randomly filled with flying arrows. For added fun, poison the arrows.
If the delvers are quick and lucky enough to make it to the closing door, they will have to hurl themselves over it to escape the acid and arrow stormed corridor. That will land them squarely on a pit trap just on the other side that has been collecting the acid that was draining out of the corridor.