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I included this trap in the adventure last week...
The party found a back marble statue of an obese man in royal robes holding a scythe. In its other hand was a silver platter. On the player was a roasted fowl, loaves of fresh bread, pieces of fresh fruit, and a flagon of wine. The aroma of the good was enticing. Spiky runes lined the statue's dais.
The platter was magical, with a permanent create food and drink effect. The food was wholesome and delicious, and anything removed would reappear in five minutes.
The spiky runes were in an ancient language (Thassilonian) and read, "Behold the magnanimity of Runelord Zutha. All who please him are blessed with his bounty."
The statute was a trap, sort of. Anyone who praised Runelord Zutha aloud (in Thassilonian) was immune. Anyone who did not praise Zutha and touched the statue or the food was hit with a feast of ashes effect, at a high caster level. Anyone under this effect needed to make a will save or try to eat the delicious-smelling food... and be nauseated.
Nasty...
Will they see the variant with the unquenchable thirst too?
One thing I love tossing into my dungeons are weird magical items. I have 3 D30 lists of items, they are Somewhat Useful, Fairly Useless and Minorly Cursed.
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1 million gp in a vault that only can only be entered and exited once and all of them are gold bugs.I wasn't that nasty. The treasure room contains a bunch of magical equipment far beyond their level. However, only living matter could be teleported to/from the treasure room--they couldn't take any of the loot away from there. (And they weren't of a high enough level to teleport out on their own.)
It never occurred to them that knowledge could leave--they could study the spellbooks.
I would have sold treasure maps to the place.
When the players roll perception and one of them rolls a natural 1 and states "I found a rock." Why yes, yes you did. It is in fact an enchanted rock that only shows itself to those who have failed to notice something at a possibly crucial moment. The rock is a one time use wandering artifact that is found when you roll a natural 1 on a perception check. It permits you to reroll any natural 1 aside from the one used to find the rock before disappearing awaiting the next adventurer or enemy perhaps to find it.
If you want to crush their souls you can add in "Nah just kidding with you, it's just a rock."
Assuming they can figure it out, perhaps the rock could function as a limited use rope trick, enlarging to small boulder that the PCs could magically "crawl under"? A bit of a respite in a rubble-filled dungeon teeming with scores of monsters. Of course, this might prompt the party to literally leave no stone unturned searching for hidden loot or critters.
Nasty...
Will they see the variant with the unquenchable thirst too?
No... at least not yet. First of all, Zutha is the Runelord of Gluttony, which implies food.
Second, they're only 5th level. Starvation for a week is very unpleasant, but you can go without food for a week and not die.
Not so thirst. Cup of dust is likely to kill.
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Give them a mission to rescue a girl.
After getting past hazards to the location, have some halfling wearing a mushroom shaped cap tell them the hostage is in another dungeon/area.
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Give them a mission to rescue a girl.
After getting past hazards to the location, have some halfling wearing a mushroom shaped cap tell them the hostage is in another dungeon/area.
lmao
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A made a template I never used called Spellpowered. It could be applied to anything corporeal, and gave the creatures small, stackable buffs whenever a spell was cast within so many feet of it.
I based it of a Magic: The Gathering card called Kiln Fiend.
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That sounds a lot like the Spell Warped template or Lich Shade. :)
Cool idea.
Drat. Now I need to find my template and compare. >.>
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Give them a mission to rescue a girl.
After getting past hazards to the location, have some halfling wearing a mushroom shaped cap tell them the hostage is in another dungeon/area.
Yeah, I've seen it happen (albeit without anything mushroom-related). After battling some tough and deadly monsters guarding a lair where their friend was taken, the party took the west door and found the prison, where they rescued an old lady who said that the friend had already been taken away by other bad guys.
And the party figured "The monsters here are so tough. What's the point of exploring this place any further?" and they left. What a shame. If only they had happened to choose the east door first - or if, after questioning the old lady, they had decided to explore further anyway - they would have found that the rest of the lair's denizens weren't as tough as those guarding the entrance. And they would have found a very valuable treasure horde. As it is, the party is now WAY behind in wealth for its level.
Yet despite this, my main thought while running this was "Thank you, Mario, but our princess is in another castle."
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I... I might have to borrow this. My Kingmaker group is getting ready to go after a vampire.From experience: When the vampire turns out to be a mimic, your players will groan. When they realize the mimic is a vampire, they will hate you for ever and for always. :)
For extra bonus points, put a couple of the coffin mimics from book 5 of carrion crown guarding the mimic vampire's actual coffin, so the party has no way of knowing which of the three coffins is the real target.
For a political Kingmaker:
The Vampire Mimic has levels in Bard (Demagogue Archetype) and is filthy rich and has plans for World Domination Through Political Action.
When you are tired of voting for the Lesser of 2 Evils, vote for
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Oh god I laughed so hard I cried. Terrible pun is awesome...
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Mimics in shapes you wouldn't think of. (Example from an official AP: a boat that the characters ostensibly have to take in order to progress through the adventure.)
Unintelligent or completely evil seeming monsters that stop and talk or surprisingly beg for mercy, dispelling the adventurers' comfortable assumptions that given monsters are merely dumb beasts. (Example- conversational otuyghs.)
Positive energy aligned undead. (More than one way for you to freak out your players here I've used/seen.)
Casting the magic aura spell on magic traps to throw off players who think detect magic will nail everything 100% of the time. Also place magic aura on nonmagical things and disguise some of your traps but not others for real insidious mind games.
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Mimics in shapes you wouldn't think of. (Example from an official AP: a boat that the characters ostensibly have to take in order to progress through the adventure.)
I'm not well-versed in APs, but who could forget "Old Man Katan and the Incredible, Edible, Dancing Mushroom Band" from Dungeon magazine, issue 41?
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Ok I have SO many:
1- The Chickens of Doom: When I have been GMing for like 12 or more hours straight and probably ad-libing the last 4 hours, there comes a time... a terrible time when tiredness defeats creativity. At this dark hour the Chickens of Doom appear! They are between 8 and 12 feet tall and bristle with demonic and angelic raiment and gear... they are typically a CR +4 encounter and have amazing treasures (see entry #2), if you survive!
2- Misbegotten gear: There is a list I keep of item ideas. Things that are awesome but twisted in some way (cursed maybe, or even Items of Destiny like those found in works of fiction, possibly even set items inspired by video games). These are unplaytested items that I have notes on and they are always balanced by drawbacks for the unwary.
As an example: 'Sharin'ka's Slippers of Grace'; These legendary slippers are possessed by the spirit of the great dancer Sharin'ka who entranced thousands in her lifetime with feats of elegant dancing. Powers: They provide a level dependent Dex enhancement; A perform (dancing) circumstance bonus of +8; and add a dodge bonus of +2 to the wearers AC. Drawbacks: The wearer must accept the gift of grace when donning these slippers to gain access to it's powers. It becomes impossible to move normally, you always dance in an elegant fashion when you are moving, much like a ballerina complete with all the little twirls and leaps. Also many viewers will remark on the elegant beauty of the character while they dance "Almost as if Sharin'ka were here herself." When these dropped they were claimed by Gron't the Orc Barbarian who fancied the dodge bonus to AC I imagine... he was the target of numerous jokes and forever after had the nickname Gron't the Elegant! The fey party member even decided to be helpful by recoloring all his gear pink, magenta, pure white, and gold to match the slippers of course. It offends the fey to adventure in mismatched gear colors. I am sure Gron't would have preferred the fey recolor the slippers instead but you know how playful fey can be!
3- The Magical Schoolbus: This I reserve for pick-up games I will be straight ad-libing. It is a fast and totally silly way to collect all the heroes from wherever they happen to be and deposit them at the location of the "field trip" errr... adventure locale.
4- That NPC you love and hate: You know the one. She is witty and fun to have around and interact with BUT is a huge magnet for trouble. Sometimes they are helpless followers but most of the time I build them as support characters like bards or clerics or whatever the group needs.
A full on CSI Crimescene.......
It must contain a wooden bathtub currently turned upside down.
A piece of rope, soap, a clothesline, and a scrub brush.A deck of cards, marbles, a small corncob doll a.squeeze-box sitting on a stool in the corner....
Add other red.herrings as desired.
How about this setting:
A tight rope with no net, a set of weights recently used, a bunch of magician's props also recently used (complete with rabbit peeking out of a hat), other circus paraphernalia and a dead clown. :D
That's actually in a "Solve this mystery" in my newest module.
Ok I have SO many:
As an example: 'Sharin'ka's Slippers of Grace'; These legendary slippers are possessed by the spirit of the great dancer Sharin'ka who entranced thousands in her lifetime with feats of elegant dancing. Powers: They provide a level dependent Dex enhancement; A perform (dancing) circumstance bonus of +8; and add a dodge bonus of +2 to the wearers AC. Drawbacks: The wearer must accept the gift of grace when donning these slippers to gain access to it's powers. It becomes impossible to move normally, you always dance in an elegant fashion when you are moving, much like a ballerina complete with all the little twirls and leaps. Also many viewers will remark on the elegant beauty of the character while they dance "Almost as if Sharin'ka were here herself." When these dropped they were claimed by Gron't the Orc Barbarian who fancied the dodge bonus to AC I imagine... he was the target of numerous jokes and forever after had the nickname Gron't the Elegant! The fey party member even decided to be helpful by recoloring all his gear pink, magenta, pure white, and gold to match the slippers of course. It offends the fey to adventure in mismatched gear colors. I am sure Gron't would have...
My Rogue Shadow Dancer would have LOVED those slippers. :)
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My Rogue Shadow Dancer would have LOVED those slippers. :)Ok I have SO many:
As an example: 'Sharin'ka's Slippers of Grace'; These legendary slippers are possessed by the spirit of the great dancer Sharin'ka who entranced thousands in her lifetime with feats of elegant dancing. Powers: They provide a level dependent Dex enhancement; A perform (dancing) circumstance bonus of +8; and add a dodge bonus of +2 to the wearers AC. Drawbacks: The wearer must accept the gift of grace when donning these slippers to gain access to it's powers. It becomes impossible to move normally, you always dance in an elegant fashion when you are moving, much like a ballerina complete with all the little twirls and leaps. Also many viewers will remark on the elegant beauty of the character while they dance "Almost as if Sharin'ka were here herself." When these dropped they were claimed by Gron't the Orc Barbarian who fancied the dodge bonus to AC I imagine... he was the target of numerous jokes and forever after had the nickname Gron't the Elegant! The fey party member even decided to be helpful by recoloring all his gear pink, magenta, pure white, and gold to match the slippers of course. It offends the fey to adventure in mismatched gear colors. I am sure Gron't would have...
I was totally expecting the fey to claim them as they would have complimented her abilities well, but Gron't won the item... which DID make Gron't more dangerous in combat. Ah Gron't the Elegant I remember you well. Legends of the dancing Orc persist in many places in the world today.
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A room containing a pair of moldering skeletons in ornate robes who shout "Let's dance!" when the PCs enter the room.
If the players respond by attacking them, they fight as 20th-level Bloodragers with the benefits of a haste spell, unlimited Bloodrage, +5 vorpal weapons, 1000 hit points each, SR 1000, +100 to all saving throws, and immunity to all forms of damage.
If the players stay their hands, they proceed to perform a simple, elegant dance for about 3 minutes before collapsing into inanimate piles of bone and cloth, and the room becomes free to pass and explore.
Was that a Monster Party reference?
Which makes me think I should make a room with the corpse of a single huge spider enchanted with Magic Mouth to say "I am already dead".*edit* seems someone already made this comment. Certainly worth it though!
My players were all playing races that had dark vision so they got used to just going around in the dark tombs and dungeons easily. In one dungeon I put in a tiled floor with certain tiles triggering traps. The tiles were color coded--the enemies just carried torches to step on the right colored tiles.
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Reverse how things work. Water glows uphill for no reason. It gets darker as the sun rises.
Herds of deer chase down and eat wolves.
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{. . .}
Unintelligent or completely evil seeming monsters that stop and talk or surprisingly beg for mercy, dispelling the adventurers' comfortable assumptions that given monsters are merely dumb beasts. (Example- conversational otuyghs.)
Follow this Council of Thieves PbP far enough and you'll find a conversational Otyugh who was considerate enough to warn the PCs to stand aside while it exits the area to getting a disease from it (this one had a nasty infection).
Positive energy aligned undead. (More than one way for you to freak out your players here I've used/seen.)
{. . .}
The 1st Edition Monster Manual entry for Mummy described Mummies as having a connection to the Positive Material Plane. I never was sure whether this was a mistake or an explanation for their being incubators of a dreadful disease, but I was actually inclined to believe the latter.
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Reverse how things work. Water glows uphill for no reason. It gets darker as the sun rises.
Herds of deer chase down and eat wolves.
STOLEN.
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Reverse how things work. Water glows uphill for no reason. It gets darker as the sun rises.
Although slightly accidental, borrowing the idea of water that gets darker as the sun rises, and (by extension) glows after the sunsets is very interesting.
I'm really interested in what causes it to flow up hill and glow... I'm going to say something about Far Realm, but I'm not too sure...
Hm...
Herds of deer chase down and eat wolves.
Awesome. I'm actually interested in several different ways in how this can work.
- Deer that are now carnivores.
- Deer that are omnivores.
- Deer that are still herbivores, but kill wolves to spill blood and grow food edible for them.
In the latter, at least, it becomes a fascinating idea of sentient deer - possibly awakened by a rogue druid - who have created a kind of social "technology" - hm... very interesting ideas generated. Thanks! :D
A chihuahua that likes people's legs
An ugly lady who stalks the male party members, she wants to kiss them at every opportunity.
Like in scary movie 2: the door knock on the big door is a set of b$+!@!~s, followed by screams of agony upon use.
An X shaped table amongst leather items, 1 must spend time upon it for the gate to the bbeg to open.
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"The party travels down a 2000 ft long, 5 ft wide tunnel carved through solid rock. At the end of the tunnel is a 40 ft diameter half-spherical room with a 5 ft high, 20 ft diameter dais in the center. On the dais is an enormous statue of [some random deity] made of what looks to be gold."
The statue is actually gold... solid gold. However, it's indestructible and cannot be affected by any mortal magic (to include teleportation, extra-dimensional spaces, planar travel, etc.). It's also much too large to fit through the tunnel, even if the PCs could carry it (considering that a 1 ft sphere of gold weighs about 630 lbs, even a "small" statue roughly 6 ft x 6 ft x 6 ft in volume weighs something over 136 thousand lbs).
The PCs should know better than to mess with an idol of a deity, anyway...
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Fun Fact: Deer occasionally do eat meat.
I've also used that suggestion(deer's eating wolves) in a similar thread a while ago.
4. Mislabeled Potions (But it says Potion of invisibility... why am I not invisible? Why am I growing rabbit ears?)
A very mean and nasty variant on this would be to have them find some potions labeled "Potion of Healing" with the twist that the potions were healing intended for a person with negative energy affinity...
What would be meaner and nastier is to rule that that, since the PC who drinks the potion drank it himself thinking there'd be no negative effects, he would be foregoing his saving throw against the potion...
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"The planar gate turns out to take the form of a great stained-glass mosaic - which the nefarious Dark Lord took care to smash on his way out. In order to pass through, you must first reconstruct it."
You then place a boxed jigsaw puzzle, containing at least 100 pieces per player, on the table. The longer they take to assemble it, the more of an advantage the nefarious Dark Lord gains on them.
The 1st Edition Monster Manual entry for Mummy described Mummies as having a connection to the Positive Material Plane. I never was sure whether this was a mistake or an explanation for their being incubators of a dreadful disease, but I was actually inclined to believe the latter.
If you get hold of Van Richten's Guide to the Ancient Dead, they are described that way as well (in 2nd edition).
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Anyways, something else A DM Can Put In A Dungeon To Totally Mess With Players:
A working model train set, running throughout the whole of the dungeon!
Make it one of those train sets that are actually big enough to ride on and put a goblin tour guide in the last car and you have yourself something pretty funny :)
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A ghost train coming right at them, no way to dodge, but harmless.
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An animate dresser that grapples creatures and spits them out dressed in mismatched clothing that disappear after a few rounds. Imagine the look on the paladin's face when he exits wearing a cleric of Asmodeus' robes.
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A ghost train coming right at them, no way to dodge, but harmless.
Or, for a more Indian Jones approach, an illusory boulder "trap". It is, in fact, a trap... because after a few fake boulders, they wont know when a real one is coming towards them!
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^
^
Beauty & the beast, Gaston's siege on the castle.
I knew i had seen it somewhere.
Many years ago ^^
In the image of the McGuffin, a mimic, bathing in a radiant beam of light. "Surprise NOM"
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A ghost train coming right at them, no way to dodge, but harmless.
Though that does make me want to have my party encounter a river of ooze (or oozes) underground now.
But it's ooze that's psychoactive in nature, and naturally angry: a combination rage plus confusion effect (special: additional save each round to negate for that round) unless they make the ooze really happy, in which case it gains the ability to animate object and/or heroism/charitable impulse/good hope or something similar.
EDIT:
(This can be done by speaking softly to it; singing to it; whispering sweet, nurturing things with it; sleeping with it...)
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So it's like this? well! similar?
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Make it one of those train sets that are actually big enough to ride on and put a goblin tour guide in the last car and you have yourself something pretty funny :)
Anyways, something else A DM Can Put In A Dungeon To Totally Mess With Players:
A working model train set, running throughout the whole of the dungeon!
Make the goblin on the caboose flailing his arms in panic, while a kobold perches on the cowcatcher and assembles the track just ahead of the running train. (Murderous penguin thief optional.)
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Dead canaries. And then something funny smelling in the air.