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I didn't really know what to write for the subject, so I apologize.
In the near future my players are going to be entering a place they believe to be a silver mine.
It will in face be a dungeon (shock and awe... gasp!)
In any case a portion of the dungeon will involve pitting the party against elemental themed fights.
I am, of course, talking about these elements:
Air
Earth
Fire
Metal
Void
Water
Wood
Now I don't want to kill my party. I also don't want it to be a cake walk. I have been a long time player, but not a long time DM. I have been dming for a little under a year now.
First off my party of players is 7 well lets say 6 seeing as how one of them is an oracle who focuses on healing and is usually not there and when they are they tend to not remember what their character can do.
The party is currently APL is 4.
All that said and done I was looking for some suggestions of some monsters that might feel like they would be at home in those elements.
I am purposely steering clear of actual elementals of X because it kinda seems a little too easy.
As an example I was considering the following as examples:
Air
Earth
Fire - Aghash (Div) due to its immunity to fire
Metal - Mask Golem - Was going to flavor it as being made up of hundreds of visors off of dead soldiers helmets.
Void
Water - Ice Golem
Wood
The party tends to do very well against most things.
Currently I have the following:
Synthesist 3 / monk 1
Witch 4
Kensai Magus 4
Alchemist firebomber 4
Rogue 4 (scout) who charges and sneak attacks alot
Soulknife 4
Oracle 4 the aforementioned not usually there one
I am looking for suggestions for monsters around the CR 5-6 and under.
Thank you in advance
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Earth - Xorn or Troll
Air - 2 Harpies or Wyvern
Wood - Shambling Mound or 3 Twigjacks
Void - Wraith or Mothman
If you need it, details for these and just about anything else can be found here
what is the dungeon motif?
I understand that you are looking for creatures based on element, but also think of why that creature would be there?
I.E if your fire portion of the dungeon is going to take place near a magma bed or inside a volcano. For your metal encounter is that portion of the dungeon in lets say a dwarven forge?
Cause i got ideas but if they won't fit the story of the dungeon then the ideas i have may be no good
How many enemies are oyu going to use?
A part of 6 level 4 character could crush a single CR4 monster without breaking a sweat.
Maybe some of the below suggestions might work for you:
The Bestiary 2 has the Rock Troll (CR6). Highly appropriate monster to be found in a mine, and is earth-themed.
If you have 3.5 material, the Voidwraith (CR6) from Libris Mortis (p.131) is a good void-themed monster.
If you want to shake the party up a bit, you could make the air-themed monster a trap/hazard instead. Bad air/poison gas would not be too unlikely an encounter. Easy enough to make it level appropriate.
The wood encounter is a bit of a toughy...how about patches of Cavelight Moss? It's not wood, but it is a plant.
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Nothing is set in stone.
I am in the planning process.
Right now the party as mentioned is 7 players.
Any and all suggestions are welcome.
If you have an awesome suggestion please let me know.
The mask golem would be more of a display of hundreds of defeated soldiers from an ancient war. (campaign specific so it might take a while to explain)
The dungeon is supposed to be fantastical and full of illusions, so a magma pit etc would not be unheard of (behind an illusion of a normal floor of course ;) )
If it helps the dungeon is supposed to be Fey designed.
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I agree about the party being able to crush a monster that is alone... my issues with this party have been that when I throw multiple enemies against the party that add up to a CR 5 or so the party easily kills all of them.
As said with the single strong monster... I end up getting 1 set of actions and then by the time it rolls around to its turn again it is highly damaged or dead. So anything in its right mind would run away at that point.
I am looking for suggestions of creatures. Maybe some appropriate terrain or advantageous locale for it and maybe even multiple creatures.
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Are character classes allowed? A sylph archer type with air elemental mooks would be an interesting fight. Give them bracers of archery and say the winds guide the arrows. A haunt for the void section would be quite interesting. Dark Stalkers and deeper darkness are also nice. I like the mask golem idea a lot.
For rock, how about a kind of rubble trap that splits the party (only takes a few rounds to dig out, and each side fights a different group of enemies. If that doesn't work a xorn wouldn't be easy. Heck with 7 players a xorn on one side and two minor mooks on the other. It would be very challenging, but rewarding to the players.
Water: 2 Sea Hags
Wood: a corrupted nymph: young template or somesuch, take away some SLAs and turn it evil along with two assassin vines.
I really agree with the others that at least some of these fights can't just but one monster. A seven player party has A LOT of action economy. Part of the danger of some fights is multiple enemies.
Air- In a room filled with Stinking Cloud a small group of Medium Air elementals.
The elementals will be sucking up the Stinking Cloud and when they slam or whirlwind a PC they will also have to save against the Stinking Cloud.
Earth- Gargoyles...they work
Fire-fire elementals or magma elementals, Perhaps a mephit or two that have ranks in UMD and wands of Magic Missile
Metal-Rust Monster...That would be in a metal type area. Maybe a metal Animated Object
Void-Akata, Heck it creates Void Zombies. Will O Wisp might be good too
Water-a swimming pool with a water elemental in it is a little cliche' but it works. Bunyips also make good low level aquatic enemies. Or even just give a assassin vine the aquatic template. If they ever have to go underwater.
Wood- Wood Golem...Maybe a Treant
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A seven player party has A LOT of action economy.
YES! This is 110% true.
Even though I would say 3-4 of the players are newish or very roleplaying heavy it leaves me with very little to do.
Best example of this so far I would say is I ran a modified version of Crown of the Kobold King and the party reached the forgespurned... it lasted 2 rounds. This was only because of the creatures fast healing.
@ Kiinyan : I like the idea of the rubble trap... the images it conjured in my mind please me!
@Dwarfakin : I very much like the stinking cloud idea. I also like the gargoyles. Flying would be a pain to the group. Even in a small area. They have no flying capabilities at all in the group. The only real ranged is the alchemist, sometimes the soulknife (limited to the thrown range), and the bad spell selection of the magus. Only worry is the witch hex sleeping anything.
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Are you referring to this haunt
Haunts are very flexible, I wasn't thinking of any in particular, but I knew the flavor could easily match The Void.
To start with, I would think about using kobolds as a theme that draws everything together – probably would use kobolds with the elemental resistances and class levels with their resistance/ dragon scale type based on the element.
This would give you an overall “theme” to tie your dungeon together and a relatively low base-threat creature to build on and let you put lots of “crunchies” in to absorb some of the actions of your 6+ member party.
For the “non-chromatic elements” (void, metal, wood) I would think about going with a kobold oracle of the appropriate elements mystery or a kobold elemental wizard with those elements as a specialty as a mini-boss or side kick.
Kobolds are also huge fans of traps, so that could also be a way to both give the Rogue an opportunity to use their trap finding / disarming skills as well as have ways to cut down on the action economy advantages of the PCs by using traps that not only deal damage, but may generate difficult terrain or impede visibility or create other “debuff” conditions.
If you aren’t a fan of kobolds, maybe use some sort of elemental cult theme with members of the elemental alternate PC races (Oread, Sylph, etc.) as the minion creatures. Maybe a Suli Elemental Knight Magus as a boss.
-TimD
For the Void I suggest a Gravity Elemental.
Actually, using real elementals would be really good, since they tend to have DR/- and are immune to critical hits and precision damage, making them much more survivable. Don't overuse them though, since that would make the rogue's sneak attack worthless all dungeon. Aside from the True Elementals, look at salamanders, belkers, crysmals, invisible stalkers, mihstus, and sandmen. Need some more water ones in that though.
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Well he said these would be boss fights, so this isn't restricting the whole dungeon, just the final fights of each area, and I don't think generic elementals would cut it.
Rather, I think that, in the spirit of WoW (don't hate me) ow this should work is elementals and some other creatures will make up a few trash fights to the big boss.
In hindsight, some of my suggestions are more suited to interesting trap fights (the Earth wing suggestion, for example).
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Sorry Kiinyan!
I only saw this now... I have been busy with real life affairs (sigh)
In any case I will let you know what I decided.
The game is tonight. The party is supposed to arrive there, but they have a tendency of going off script and I know for a fact that due to one of the PCs dark secrets being revealed last session there is a huge chance that they will not actually get to the dungeon. Not the end of the world as it will let me flesh it out even more... probably not good for them, but hey it is their own fault.
Whoops sorry for the off topic rant.
What I have decided on his the following
Air - A room filled with Stinking Cloud and a small group of Medium Air elementals (suggestion from Dwarfakin). I liked the idea. I figure I will set several traps around an object holding an item they need that will set it off.
Earth - Rubble trap as suggested by Kiinyan. I will make the party roll to see who ends up where. I am actually on the fence for this one. I almost want to throw a basilisk at them. stone = earth might be stretching it though. Although I am partial to the idea of a giant ant lion and the idea of a few crysmals...
Fire - Aghash (Div) with a couple of magma elementals. I am going to dress it up but at its core it will be this as the encounter.
Metal - I never really changed my idea about the mask golem... I kinda liked and I am sticking with it.
Void - I was going to have them enter an area that is completely filled with shadows except for an item that the party will need to get that will be a on pedestal (indiana jones style) that is lit up with light. The light will be a haunt and I will have a 2-3 shadows waiting for the party in shadows as they try to approach the pedestal to take the item. The shadows will fight the party before hand because I think it might be a little much, but if they try to grab the item while the fight is going on... well its their own damn fault!
Water - Well I plan on having the party follow a path of shallow water. Along the way they will be attacked by several small water elementals. Then when they get towards the end of the path they will come across a thin wall of ice they will have to break. Then past that there will be a small island with another small rocky outcropping holding another item they need in the middle of a deep pond. I plan for the water to hold an elder thing, which has been awakened by them breaking the thin barrier of ice.
Wood - Cavelight moss. It seems easy, but glowing moss is something they have already run into so the party might be lulled into a false sense of security. Heck one party member might use his slippers of spider climbing to try and walk up to it and eat it!