| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
A room with numbers on the floor, counting down from 9 to 3, ending at a blank wall of the room. No secret door there, just numbers counting down.
Traps that arm or trigger only when you disarm other traps.
A room in a dungeon in which all furniture is fixed to the ceiling.
A big, impressive door with a fancy trap and a high-DC lock. Describe the whole thing in gorgeous detail.
Once opened, there is nothing but blank dungeon wall behind it.
But as soon as they open that door, the wall opposite it slides open. Of course an illusion of a stone wall and a silence spell with magic aura cast over the area to keep it secret means it's pure chance...
Hephalumphs and woozels....
Or a Wumpus
Ah jiss! An entire dungeon level filled with clones of me and Master Pugwampi to soften you up before the Candyland-inspired sugary sweet sticky last level of Mistress Princess Bubblegumcubus.
|
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
A huge treasure vault filled to the brim with...torches, clubs, quarterstaves, sling bullets, firewood, soap, candlesticks, flasks, jugs, pitchers, bushels of wheat, turnips, and other goods that, while undeniably useful, weigh a great deal and sell for almost nothing.
| 5 people marked this as a favorite. |
A huge treasure vault filled to the brim with...torches, clubs, quarterstaves, sling bullets, firewood, soap, candlesticks, flasks, jugs, pitchers, bushels of wheat, turnips, and other goods that, while undeniably useful, weigh a great deal and sell for almost nothing.
Protected by the low CR Tin Dragon. :)
Tin used to be very valuable though. I'd suggest iron - it's much heavier, still undeniably useful and not really worth that much. :p
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Or a pyrite dragon
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
A huge treasure vault filled to the brim with...torches, clubs, quarterstaves, sling bullets, firewood, soap, candlesticks, flasks, jugs, pitchers, bushels of wheat, turnips, and other goods that, while undeniably useful, weigh a great deal and sell for almost nothing.Protected by the low CR Tin Dragon. :)
This is actually extremely clever and I will be stealing it. Like, immediately. I already have an idea. You two are .
Or a pyrite dragon
Fool's gold dragon. :)
A greatsword that grants true strike 3 times a day but only to a fighter with no other class levels. It is otherwise just a cold iron sword.
A psychiatrist office. The doctor is a gnome named sigmund Fraud. He can convince your character that Old Ones are just monsters who can use the insainity spell as a supernatural power.
-A heavily-decorated, nobility-class bedroom with an obvious succubus sleeping in the bed. If the PCs are not trying to sneak, she grumbles at them to let her sleep. Attempts to use detect evil on her get confusing results.
- A giant arena, with a variety of humanoids and humanoid undead in the stands. In the middle of the arena is an iron golem designed to resemble a Tian monk. As soon as the PCs approach it, a voice announces "Round 1. Fight!" and techno-style music starts playing.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Another, even larger dungeon!
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
^Wait . . . That means that it has to be bigger on the inside than on the outside . . . And you know what that means . . . .
-A door to the Far Realm. Something with tentacles reaches up and slams the door shut if they don't cross through it.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
A door to The Far Side. On the other side is the party made up of awakened animals. :)
| 13 people marked this as a favorite. |
The best thing I ever used to mess with my players was a Bag of Tricks. It proved how, sometimes, a simple magic item and knowledge of the players can create an ongoing game of mental warfare where you have to do nothing at all.
One player confessed to me that her character wanted to be a demented Snow White in how she could interact with animals. As a joking reference to that, I put a tan Bag of Tricks in one treasure hoard.
As soon as the character was told what it was, the player started giggling madly and gave up her entire share just to have that treasure. The rest of the group thought it was worthless and wanted to sell it. But then came that giggling. The other players spent the rest of the session trying to figure out exactly what made that item so immensely powerful that she'd react like that.
The player who wanted the bag played a rogue. The other three a fighter, a cleric, and a wizard. So, naturally, something that would make the rogue react like that was of some concern. At night, the rogue slept cuddling the bag, which freaked the party out even more.
The first fight they got in after the rogue got the bag of tricks, she was positioned in a tree so she could attack enemies from hiding. Well, she kinda did... She used the Bag of Tricks and rolled a rhino for her first throw. The rest of the party, after seeing the rogue slaughter someone by throwing a rhino at them, was suddenly wanting to examine that bag.
That night, the fighter tried to pry it from her arms while she was sleeping without waking her, but couldn't. He thought he hadn't woken her. He was wrong. He woke up later to a lion on his chest and her dagger at his neck, with her whispering that if anyone ever tries that again they won't see the sun rise.
Things went downhill from there. The rogue kept finding excuses to use animals as weapons. And, once, as catapult ammunition. And over time, her laughter as she did it was getting more and more demented... Soon, the rest of the players were in fear of what would happen if they took that bag away from her.
Finally, one day, they decided that both the bag and the rogue had to go. So, they resolved to kill her in her sleep. Unknown to them, she was hidden nearby listening. She spent the rest of the day stealing the party's entire supply of alchemist's fire (the party kept a lot on hand because they kept finding uses for it).
That night, while everyone slept, she slipped out of her bed roll and placed a back loaded with the alchemist's fire inside the roll, then climbed a tree and waited. It was not long after the rest of the party got up and, with the cleric refusing to be involved, the fighter and wizard moved to kill her.
Kaboom.
The wizard was chunky salsa, the fighter was dying, the cleric was heavily hurt, and their camp was destroyed. I rolled dice, checked, and determined it would be three minutes before guards from the nearby town could reach them to check what was going on.
The cleric heals the fighter back to health, steps away to heal himself... and is promptly killed by a rhino falling from a tree. This caused the fighter to curse and begin hunting the treetops for the rogue. The rogue had hopped down from the tree already and used the opportunity to sneak around behind the fighter and stab him in the back with a poisoned dagger.
During the ensuing fight, the fighter managed to kill the rogue, but ended up poisoned to the point he could not survive without aid. And all of the people who could give him aid were dead. The guards arrived just in time to hear his last words.
"The tan bag... it's evil..."
And then the fighter died.
And that's the story of how I got a TPK using nothing but a Bag of Tricks and player paranoia.
Constructs that look like living creatures. Or unliving creatures. Or furniture.
Anything, really.
Because a talented mortician can make a flesh golem look really alive.
Maybe some really old rich guy wants the character to retrieve his kidnapped daughter. They arrive to find the kidnappers tried to cut off her thumb to send to her father, and she went berserk.
You could have a maid at a rich persons mansion have marble white skin, but when the PCs try to rob the place they find out she is really a caryatid column.
The best thing I ever used to mess with my players was a Bag of Tricks. It proved how, sometimes, a simple magic item and knowledge of the players can create an ongoing game of mental warfare where you have to do nothing at all.
{. . .}During the ensuing fight, the fighter managed to kill the rogue, but ended up poisoned to the point he could not survive without aid. And all of the people who could give him aid were dead. The guards arrived just in time to hear his last words.
"The tan bag... it's evil..."
And then the fighter died.
And that's the story of how I got a TPK using nothing but a Bag of Tricks and player paranoia.
Awesome setup for the introductory adventure of the next campaign . . . .
-A trans woman orc who has yet to get the necessary treatments.
She wasn't intended to mess with the players on that level, but it brought the entire group to a cognitive standstill for a few moments. The only reason she ended up trans is the random gender roll said she was.
Then someone asked, "Are you serious?"
I said yeah, they told me this was cool and went on playing.
A double Programmed image which starts when the heroes enters a big stonewalled room: they see another man at the other side of the room, who looks surprised to see them and run away toward another door, slamming the door after him.
As the heroes probably run after him, the door fades away, and acid falls from tiny holes in the ceiling.
Of course, the door by which they entered the room is now cloaked in illusion, and has disappeared. Hard to cast detect magic with acid falling on you...
When/if the team manage to find the first (and only) door they came through, they are surprised to see it a one way door only, and can't pick up the lock.
Of course, they must destroy the heavy door, and suffer some acid damage.
Clowns.
Give the clown NPC an avatar and a sawblade glaive.
Te party waking up to the sight of being trapped, and a clown doll saying 'i want to play a game'
A spine. Just, laying there, on the floor, all spine-like.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
An elevator that just looks like an empty room. The party goes in and the doors close. They hear a "roaring noise" and feel the ground tremble. When they open the door, they are on another level. Do not give any indication that it is just an elevator.
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Rust Monster Monks with Feral Combat Training so they can flurry with their Antenna. They're competitive eaters, so the first one to finish it's "meal" takes a round to jump around all happy.
If they are going into an incomplete part of the dungeon, use the monstrous core cast of Rusty and Co.
When they see a cute rust monster, a chattering Mimic, and a Gelatinous Cube swinging a Katana, they will run the other way!
I heartily agree.
a mouse hole. my players spent two hours trying to figure out why it was there
Put one of these in.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BigLippedAlligatorMoment
This thread has some pretty good choices . . . .
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I saw this on facebook:
A pile of gold coin that actually is a pile of tiny little ferocious mimics. The Mini Mimic Swarm encounter.
Your party is exploring a dungeon and you come across a magic portal. Above the portal is a message in ancient script that reads
"Great rewards await the courageous of heart"
however all around the room there are other messagers painted, carved or scratched into the walls and floor. They are in many different languages but all have a similar message
"It's a Trap"
"Don't Do it"
"One way Trip"
"Give me back my friends ya bastard"
etc....
What do you do?
|
A finely carved hammer that nobody can lift. A craft check will show that it is carved from pure iron. A more careful perception check will show that it is part of a larger iron formation and somebody just carved an extrusion to look like a hammer from a meteor that is buried beneath it. The DC to figure this out should be very high, but not quite impossible to detect.
Casting detect magic will show a very powerful magical aura of no specific school of magic (magic aura spell), and when touched a silent alarm spell will alert a spellcaster that there are intruders in his dungeon. The hammer carving should give the resident of the cave complex time to set up a surprise attack as the party of PCs struggles to lift the hammer.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
That would be like a sword in a stone that releases water that starts to fill the room. Just having the doors seal when the sword is pulled out should be upsetting. If the only way out is to put the sword back will really mess with the players.
My siblings once discovered the tower they'd entered was a mimic.
|
|
A small box that periodically plays strange music or chimes like a bell until you unfold it. When unfolded the voice of strange people comes out if it asking you about your home mortgage or if you would like to donate to the Salvation Army. When unfolded, one side of the box has strange symbols on a series of buttons in a 3x4 grid. The other side has a flat crystal surface that sometimes displays images of hideous creatures.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
There's this other book with the same title. It contains explosive runes on every page.