I want to design a scene where the monster re-spawns like a video game. The party comes into an area and summon monster causes creatures to appear and then attack. What's a good mechanic for having more monsters continue to reappear so that the characters can do something about it.
Ex; in the game gauntlet monsters have a nest they spawn from. Having a hive the party can attack and, if destroyed, doesn't spawn anymore. Does anyone have any different suggestions?
The only stipulations are that 1) the fight takes place in a mausoleum and 2) the monsters spawned cannot be undead.
Summoning or calling effects are probably going to be your best bet all around.
Is the Mausoleum sacred to a particular deity? Perhaps a shrine that is attended or populated by planar entities due to a minor one-way rift or portal anchored to it, and when the PCs show up it gets the attention of the things on the other side - destroy the shrine, the rift closes, no more critters.
Permenant Greater Glyph of Warding.
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You have a lot of MMO players?
Bloody Skeletons are what you are looking for.
OP specifically said no undead.
To the OP- Unless your writing it to be published, it doesn't matter. You say it is from an animated painting and whenever the "creature" walks out of frame it spawns,
Or... a soul driven rune on the floor. Any creature which dies within 30 feet of the runes causes a permanent summon spell to activate,
OR
any number of ideas. Just make it happen. You do not need some mechanic to make it work.
Mhoire Castle from old dungeon Magazines did this.
Had a set collection of monsters with maximum hit points that endlessly respawned, 'perfect' versions of a standard monster, in the cellars of the place as a result of it being the center of a powerful magical node. Hydras, troll rangers, skilled NPC fighter squad, and a single wizard who spawned enough to actually gain some independent thought and retain memory between lives some.
==Aelryinth
I had a trap in a big high-level dungeon once that spawned frostfallen silver wyrmling dragons into random rooms of that level of the dungeon, who then proceeded to wander the dungeon. If there was ever less than 6 of them in the dungeon the trap would summon more a few rounds later.
I know that's an undead monster in my example, but it's just an example of how the trap worked. It could be used for any monster.
Constructs, undead, and maybe oozes are the most easily explained though, otherwise players might question why these summoned monsters aren't rebelling.
Thank you all for your input so far. The painting suggestion comes closest to the question I was asking; I'm wondering about what the party can do to STOP the spawning.
For example if I went the route of the painting have the mausoleum's main hall be a collection of tapestries; any time the party nears one a monster is summoned. Once the monsters START summoning the only way NOT to be overwhelmed by an endless horde is to slice/burn/destroy said tapestry.
So I know I'm going to have SOMETHING that is producing said creatures; I'm looking for suggestions on what the SOMETHING is and how the party destroys it (I'm sorry for miscommunicating).
The party is level 1 and they are composed as follows
Male human fighter (2hw)
Male human monk/maneuver master
Male human alchemist
Male dwarf cleric of Abadar/earth & nobility
Male human rogue/whip and dagger
Other thoughts I had:
If I'd have made this a sewer dungeon a series of pipes dripping out of the wall; the drips are spawning an ooze or two a round and someone in the party has to cross the afflicted area to close an old valve.
A trio of braziers whose smoke mingles to produce a monster every round. A series of Drench spells could be used then to sputter out the fires and ruin the effect, or just kicking over the braziers to scatter the coals.
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