So I've hit a writer's block in terms of encounters. I've got a game this week, and I'm just feeling stuck, so I thought I'd pose the questions here. What are the most memorable and interesting combat encounters that you've designed? And what made them different?
How did you keep the encounter dynamic? How did terrain and character movement come together to create a unique experience?
I don't mean particular monsters or plot (though I wouldn't mind hearing short versions of how that added to a specific encounter).
Most memorable for me: a couple giant centipedes on a crumbling bridge. Said bridge had a narrow catwalk through the trusses on the underside for the centipedes but the bridge was difficult terrain and there was one whole section that collapsed, creating a very challenging pit trap type scenario. I thought it was a lot of fun; the party hated it (lost one guy and almost another to it)
Most memorable for my players: 2 ankhegs in a bog. The ground was shallow mud that the creatures could plow through with a great deep bog in the center of the map that I figured would stymie the players. One made a Climb check into a tree and peppered them with arrows; the barbarian used a ready action, jumped the ENTIRE POND to drop onto the back of one of them, riding it back down into the mud. The terrain ended up meaning nothing to the party and they wailed on these things.
Here's a few very memorable encounter that I designed and ran. Fun fun!
See Saw Encounter
Nice work here! That's exactly what I was looking for? I hope people keep them coming.
I don't have anything really specific I feel is worth saying, but perhaps I might have some general helpful advice for clearing the writer's block, and that is: search the dusty corners of the game, for things that probably only NPCs can get away with. Then, if you have an interesting enemy or group, the encounter might just write itself.
Are there any character concepts that you never got to try? Maybe there was one you skipped because it wasn't a good team player. NPCs don't need to be team players.
Are they any interesting feats that might be fun to try once? An enemy is a great place to try it out. I know I ignore a lot of feats when I build a PC because it's just not practical to have, maybe due to steep requirements, being deep in a tree, or only extremely situationally useful. Pick the feats and make that situation happen.
In particular, look at the teamwork feats. They might not be great for PCs because of the high level of coordination required (character builds), but if you're designing a gang of thugs, it's a good opportunity to set them up exactly how you want them.
Look at the weird or impractical prestige classes. I can't get myself to play a mystic theurge, but I would totally make up a mystic theurge enemy.
I might as well throw out some [very] random ideas/seeds (not all will be applicable):
1. Large, fancy dinner party, when a team of thugs bursts in and demands jewelry, etc.
2. Townspeople start hallucinating. This is more of a side quest, but I just wanted to include this one.
3. Acrobatic foes attack a caravan on a narrow path, like the classic train fight. They are probably there to assassinate the heroes, but there might be another purpose if you need a plot hook.
4. The party encounters a town in their travels that is not on their map. The town is from 500 years ago, or thereabouts, and was destroyed by a massive fire. The town or PCs were moved across time, and today is the day of the fire.
5. Same setup as #4, except the unmapped town is not from the past, it's just hidden by magic, and not on the main road, the PCs got their due to a navigation error. The townsfolk aren't happy to have their existence known. They prevent the PCs from leaving in as nice a manner as possible. (Yes, cribbed idea from The Twilight Zone).
6. Is the BBEG a caster? The BBEG casts a variant form of nightmare on the entire party, and the party plunges into a dream world. This is basically carte blanche to do whatever you want, if realism was the cause of your writer's block. One possibility with this is to make the encounters highly brutal, and dying in the dream causes wisdom drain and the typical effects of nightmare, but getting to the end provides the effects of heroism (or greater, depending on level) for 24 hours.
I might as well throw out some [very] random ideas/seeds (not all will be applicable):
1. Large, fancy dinner party, when a team of thugs bursts in and demands jewelry, etc.
2. Townspeople start hallucinating. This is more of a side quest, but I just wanted to include this one.
3. Acrobatic foes attack a caravan on a narrow path, like the classic train fight. They are probably there to assassinate the heroes, but there might be another purpose if you need a plot hook.
4. The party encounters a town in their travels that is not on their map. The town is from 500 years ago, or thereabouts, and was destroyed by a massive fire. The town or PCs were moved across time, and today is the day of the fire.
5. Same setup as #4, except the unmapped town is not from the past, it's just hidden by magic, and not on the main road, the PCs got their due to a navigation error. The townsfolk aren't happy to have their existence known. They prevent the PCs from leaving in as nice a manner as possible. (Yes, cribbed idea from The Twilight Zone).
6. Is the BBEG a caster? The BBEG casts a variant form of nightmare on the entire party, and the party plunges into a dream world. This is basically carte blanche to do whatever you want, if realism was the cause of your writer's block. One possibility with this is to make the encounters highly brutal, and dying in the dream causes wisdom drain and the typical effects of nightmare, but getting to the end provides the effects of heroism (or greater, depending on level) for 24 hours.
These are all really good. I just started GMing via VTT and I guess part of the writer's block is coming from my attention being pulled in a lot of different directions (mapping software, textures, music). What folks here are saying is helping me get back into what Pathfinder is all about.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
dotting due to my own lack of originality
I sought advice about an encounter with frogs on this board which played really well. Create some swamp terrain, include some quicksand and place frogs like landmines. When a party member is close enough to be hit by the tongue they are attacked. As they move around they become in range of more and more frogs. Once each frog has engaged some prey they are much more easily able to move around by using their swim speed in bogs and jumping over the undergrowth. Add to that their grab, pull and swallow whole the party can soon get worried. If you want to be mischevous make up some situational rules about grabbing backpacks, shields, weapons instead of the victim and have the frog pull those off the party member. Quicksand just adds to the fun as the party try to follow/get away.
Quite a few nice ideas on here folks! Dotting in expectation of more good stuff :) Hmm, what's something good that I've designed..?
I made an encounter that a fire cult took over an old sun temple and the lead cultist had the ability to turn small sections of terrain into 5' deep lava pits. Well the cultist cut them off and began to fireball the party stuck in the hallway. The ranger attempted to jump the 10' and botched landing nicely in the lava. Then the oracle's readied action goes off and throws a hold person on the ranger who once again botched. Next round the ranger breaks free of the hold person and one hit crits the oracle. Then the head cultist using his slippers of spider climb began to climb the altar to get to a section of wall that was over lava so the strikers couldn't reach. well the druid finished summoning that turn and had the elemental he summoned appear on top of the alter and body slam the sorcerer back to the ground. And was successful as he landed in front of the main striker. It was supposed to be a hard encounter but because of resist energy my party made short work of it.
To summarize some advice I've gotten from other sources:
A combat encounter with shifting terrain. Dwarfakin mentioned turning normal terrain into lava pits.
A boss encounter that includes multiple forms or phases, for instance, once you take it down to zero HP, it comes back as something different, not unlike video game end bosses.
I saw another thread called EMPIRE Today, where someone was taking crazy recent news articles and turning them into adventure hooks.