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We've all heard of Tucker's Kobolds. The story gives a classic lesson: A low CR doesn't always mean an easy fight. Many GMs have taken this lesson to heart, creating deadly areas filled with well-organized hobgoblins, or cunning ettercaps, or even the occasional zany goblin warmachine.
This thread will list sixty such devious devices. I'll get the ball rolling.
1. A single black panther sits in the road up ahead. PCs are likely to assume the panther is an animal companion or messenger--right up until they're near enough to see its violet eyes and realize it's a krenshar. It then uses its howl, hopefully splitting the party. The rest of the pack focuses on ripping apart those who've fled (especially those they manage to Panic). Given the right numbers, some krenshars might target the non-scared PCs to keep them busy. According to the Bestiary 2, krenshars are supposed to use some pretty clever tactics, so I thought I'd give them some!
2. A warband of gnolls never goes anywhere without its Pugwampi-in-a-Box! Nor does it ever let the little menace out of the small iron container. Aside from a slot in the locked door, the thing is sealed. Traveling gnoll bands keep the box attached to a bindle-stick apparatus and sometimes wield it as sort of flail. This is rarely fun for the pugwampi inside, of course. Have fun rerolling those critical hits!
3. "Sweeper" kobolds. This is pretty simple: The kobolds always have an engineer or two hidden outside the tunnel entrance. These kobolds are tasked with following invaders and resetting the traps that have been tripped/disabled. Won't the PCs be surprised when they wake up and find the door they were getting ready to open has had its poison needle trap re-poisoned!
Party of brigands featuring a low level wizard or sorcerer provoke fake ambush with illusions, then retreat until PC's buff spells wear out, then ambush PC for real.
6. IK IK Shocker lizards!!! One is no problem. Several will threaten even quite experienced heroes. Even better, put a number of them down in a pit trap, or camouflaged for when the heroes are in a kill zone.
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7. The lowly fire beetle. Like the will-o-wisp of folklore, they lead the unwary into swamps. Most of the time they spend immersed in the muck, so their lights are suppressed. Only one or two of any given group will be active at any given time, trundling around on the ground until approached. Then they fly away, relying on terrain to separate their foes. Once they have one meal (er ... PC) isolated and relatively immobilized, the others emerge from the swamp and swarm in from all sides.
Maybe not as good as Tucker's kobold, but there's a reason I started with a creature with a Intelligence of -.
Listing this thread for ideas!
DOT!
I like the idea of effective strategies for mindless monsters! Bonus points if you place those beetles in an adventure involving will o' wisps to give the PCs a scare.
And I finally have a good reason to use beetles!