I am running an Underdark themed one shot tomorrow and I need awesome Underdark themed encounters. I want a couple that are standard difficulty and one or 2 that are just plain mean. I would like some Drow but not all. Outsiders could be fun
The party is level 9 and had 46000 to spend in gear. I have:
-A Fighter bard- tough big hitty buffer
-A Dervish Dancing Magus
-A Monk Barbarian Half-orc
-A Divine Hunter Paladin fighter
Give me your best!!!
Is this a Forgotten Realms conversion?
There is no Underdark in Golarion.
Do you mean the Darklands?
It is underground, where the Drow are. Hook Horrors and all that good stuff.
Drow in Golarion are a bit of a minority.
None of that "turned by a god" stuff.
It is a condition, and in rare cases, a normal Elf can turn Drow.
A Forgotten realms crossover then. All I want are encounters for the game. The semantics I could care less about
Okay.
Much of the material, monsters, and tactics differ.
Will you be using converted material?
Again, I don't care, I just want encounters for the game, that's all I want. If it would make sense then cool.
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Swarms.
Shadows and Ghosts would be fun too.
Umbral Dragons are some of the true terrors of the Darklands.
Drow are very into Alchemy and the art of Fleshwarping.
Adding the Fleshwarped template to creatures will be a good way to pump foes, and make good minion monsters for Drow Alchemist.
Swarms.
Shadows and Ghosts would be fun too.
Umbral Dragons are some of the true terrors of the Darklands.
Drow are very into Alchemy and the art of Fleshwarping.
Adding the Fleshwarped template to creatures will be a good way to pump foes, and make good minion monsters for Drow Alchemist.
Umbral dragons are mean... lol. Yea I was thinking some kind of drow cleric and Drow Alchemist npc with some minions as one of my last encounters of the game.
A few themed encounter ideas:
Duergar Slavers
The party comes upon a cavern overgrown with fungus in places and dotted here and there with stalactites and stalagmites. In the cavern is a wagon full of dwarven prisoners (stats if you really need them) drawn by those underground rothe things (cow stats) and guarded by a number of duergar. For the duergar I'd recommend adding the duergar enlarge and invisibility 1/day to some stock dwarf NPC stat blocks, unless you feel like building stats up from scratch. Two or three Cave Stalkers(CR 5 each) and a Spell Hunter (CR 6) or maybe Sundering Axe (CR 6) could do, maybe substituting in a Cave Wizard (CR 8) to make it a tough encounter. Sprinkle in some CR 1/3 Duergar Warriors if you want the party to have lots of weaker enemies underfoot, maybe even in place of one of the cave stalkers if you want a whole bunch of the weak enemies in there. I'd recommend not using more than 3 or 4 of the CR 5+ duergar together in the encounter though. With the duergar innate 1/day invisibility that should be plenty to give your players a tough combat.
Drider
In a wide cavern, particularly one with limiting terrain like a fast flowing underground river or a number of pits in the floor, the party could be hunted by a pair, trio, or quartet of driders. With their climb speeds, spells, and bows the driders could climb around the walls and any pillars you have in the area for some added mobility, while striking the party from afar. If your party is very heavy on the melee I might suggest 2 driders would be enough, striking at range with mobility and their spells, to rough up the party a bit. For added challenge enforce the darkness rules fully and let the driders take advantage of their 120ft darkvision range to strike the party probably well before the party can see them. If you want to add an element to the fight, of perhaps have a safe village or something you want the party to be able to stop off at, start the encounter with the driders hunting weaker creatures like some NPC dwarves or svirfneblin. When the battle is over, depending on the number saved, these NPCs could shower the PCs with praise for heroism or thank them with the wish that they had arrived sooner. In either case their home could be a place for the PCs to rest, meet with benevolent NPCs, role play a bit, or pick up a quest hook or two.
Creature of the Night
In the eternal darkness of the underdark your group could stumble upon a long abandoned dwarven outpost that contains a Vampire and its collection of dwarven Vampire Spawn. The vampire has come underground to escape the dangers of the sunlight only to find that for all it's magical might and undead power it is far from the top of the food chain here. It has been reduced to striking at stragglers like the two or three miners it turned and unwary surface folk (like the party) who come in unprepared.
Drow
The obvious choice of enemy, there are countless ways to use drow. If I were building a drow encounter I'd start with a drow priestess (8th or 9th level), add in a mid-powered monstrous enemy like a Phase Spider or perhaps an enslaved Half-Fiend Minotaur, and finish with a handful of drow fighter/rogues (re-skinned Guardsmen for slightly more challenge or Duelists-for-hire and Goons for less).
Other than that the d20pfsrd has bestiary creatures of the Underground terrain here. Look through there for some likely suspects for other monsters or monster groups. Good luck with the adventure!
A few themed encounter ideas:
Duergar Slavers
The party comes upon a cavern overgrown with fungus in places and dotted here and there with stalactites and stalagmites. In the cavern is a wagon full of dwarven prisoners (stats if you really need them) drawn by those underground rothe things (cow stats) and guarded by a number of duergar. For the duergar I'd recommend adding the duergar enlarge and invisibility 1/day to some stock dwarf NPC stat blocks, unless you feel like building stats up from scratch. Two or three Cave Stalkers(CR 5 each) and a Spell Hunter (CR 6) or maybe Sundering Axe (CR 6) could do, maybe substituting in a Cave Wizard (CR 8) to make it a tough encounter. Sprinkle in some CR 1/3 Duergar Warriors if you want the party to have lots of weaker enemies underfoot, maybe even in place of one of the cave stalkers if you want a whole bunch of the weak enemies in there. I'd recommend not using more than 3 or 4 of the CR 5+ duergar together in the encounter though. With the duergar innate 1/day invisibility that should be plenty to give your players a tough combat.Drider
In a wide cavern, particularly one with limiting terrain like a fast flowing underground river or a number of pits in the floor, the party could be hunted by a pair, trio, or quartet of driders. With their climb speeds, spells, and bows the driders could climb around the walls and any pillars you have in the area for some added mobility, while...
Awesome!!!!!! This is exactly what I was looking for
Cool, glad I could help! Good luck with your one shot and if you have a chance pop on in here and let us know how it goes.
things that dig and climb are great, lots of folks associate spiders with drow thanks to lolth and such, oozes, swarms, dwarves/duergar, goblinoids, those underground gnome people (svirblughblah whatever), fungus is always fun (both the stationary hazard kind and myconids, veggepygmies, shambling mounds, etc.), cloakers, undead (why hello there shadow how are you doing), unsavory types who hid underground to avoid the law (evil wizards, stranded bandits), stuff from the plane of shadow, and so on.
fetchlings may chill out there from time to time, and might be a good choice for wandering merchants the party might be able to trade with