Favorite 5th-level Encounters

[Dave Gross]

From any AP, what are your favorite encounters around 5th level that you have actually played or GMed?

What made them your favorites?

[kaineblade83]

Fifth level eh? Very specific! I had to think about this for a while; I don't usually recall my favorites on a level-by-level basis (we tend to be a more roleplay heavy group and only really start to notice level after we get out of the 'noob range' and power becomes more apparent). That being said, I have a question for the questioner; did you mean encounters that were statted up as a CR 5 encounter, or encounters we faced when we were level 5? I'll gladly answer both, mind you, I was just curious.

Spoiler tags for those that have not played the games I'm about to mention! With the party at level 5, my favorite encounter was;

Spoiler:

The Wardstone Chamber, in Wrath of the Righteous. This was the fight with Jeslyn that first launched the PCs into the realm of Mythic Power. I have GM'd this one but I actually enjoyed it more when I wasn't GMing it, just because of the makeup of that particular group.

I enjoyed it because I actually felt like a hero; we were facing a twisted monster, bent on our destruction, and we were strongly rewarded. There were some great moments from that battle that helped to add to this feeling, too. The party rogue, in the best example, vaulted over the BBEG's head, literally, and nullified the Wardstone fragment, catapulting us into mythic.

My favorite encounter that was CR 5, would be;

Spoiler:

The Plummeting Inferno haunt from Rise of the Runelords. Honestly any of the haunts, as I particularly love difficult to defeat enemies, and the echoes of past deaths are eerily amazing. This one I also played and GM'd. I liked THIS one in particular because it is, truly, terrifying; catching on fire and leaping, potentially, to your doom 200 feet below? And pre-level 10 where 20d6 can kill damn near anyone? It was well planned, well written, and the entire Misgivings area was a chillfest galore!

I think my examples lean towards the non-mechanical or high risk of failure challenges. That being said I do like my well-designed fights and high-tactic battles, that's a good bit of what the game IS, I just don't obsess over such.

Hope the examples were somewhat helpful!

[Dave Gross]

Thanks, kaineblade83! That's just the sort of answer I was hoping for.

And to vague up the question a bit, I'm looking for encounters--or, really, the reasons why you liked those encounters--with characters of about 5th level, say 5th or 6th.

[captain yesterday]

just about the entirety of Shackled Hut, with an emphasis on getting into Whitethrone thru the howlings

:

that whole part had my wife and kids on the edge of their seat

and Logrivich's Clocktower,

:

battling your way thru a clock tower lousy with ice trolls and a cannibal witch while being able to rescue kids and then fight a dragon at the top of the tower with expended resources, f#%~ yes!

also i'm a huge fan of Hodags:)

hope that helps:)

edit: also my wife and i love your books:)
my wife has read every one up until King of Chaos, i'm a bit slower getting thru novels and am working on the Tian-Xia one, awesome stuff!

[Dave Gross]

Thanks, captain yesterday. I haven't read past the first volume of Reign of Winter yet, and you've given me a good reason.

[captain yesterday]

oh!
Jade Regent

:

fighting Tengu Ninjas and some weird insect (spider eater?) on the stairs leading up to Ravenscraeg was crazy fun! we have a dexterity heavy party with a ninja so it was a multi-level-scaling-the-sides-of-the-stairs-throwing-people-over-tour-de-fo rce! probably one of the funnest encounters i ever ran!

and yes do check out Reign of Winter, it. is. Spectacular!

[Dave Gross]

Now that Ravenscraeg fight I've run. You're right--it's excellent.

I liked the first installment of RoW. I just haven't had as much reading time for games as I'd like. I'll catch up with it this winter, appropriately enough.

[captain yesterday]

Dave Gross wrote:

Now that Ravenscraeg fight I've run. You're right--it's excellent.

I liked the first installment of RoW. I just haven't had as much reading time for games as I'd like. I'll catch up with it this winter, appropriately enough.

RoW was supposed to be our summer AP but got delayed due to an epic flea battle last summer and was pushed back to winter:)

[ThreeEyedSloth]

Legacy of Fire:

Technically, this encounter was intended for 6th level characters, but we stumbled into it as 5th level anyway. It certainly made it more intense and nail-biting, and ultimately more satisfying.

We fought Garthok in the House of the Beast along with his minions, as well as his gargantuan-sized pet stegapede immediately after with no break. It was completely insane and terrifying, but so, so memorable.

Carrion Crown:

The trapped bridge leading into Schloss Caromarc in Trial of the Beast is absolutely terrifying at 5th level. A big summoned air elemental that threatens to whirlwind and dump you a hundred feet into the river below? At higher levels, no big deal. But at level 5, that is fear-inducing. And being the GM, I certainly instilled some panic during that moment. :)

[W E Ray]

SPOILERS, various APs

Over the weekend I grabbed the seven volume twos that I've DMed and the three volume twos I've played to refresh my memory and put post here. I thought I was being clever, using that material to A) prep for my weekend game (a Homebrew Campaign) cuz the PCs are in the beginning of a really big dungeon with lots of room for dynamic, while B) going back through the various volume twos to offer here.

As it turned out I barely had time to prep for my own campaign and was left with no real specifics yet to offer.

However,
I know what really gets me, both as a Player when I'm confronted with it AND as a DM when I'm developing an idea or looking for inspiration.

...Remember your characters Sandrine and Agatha from The Sundered Arms? Remember the Skinsaw Man from RotRL? These are characters (eventual encounters) that have some kind of build-up. There's some kind of foreshadowing, minimal as it may be, that leads us as gamers to recognize them when the PCs finally encounter them. Tongueeater and Kazmojen from Shackled City are perfect examples from my experience. I told my players these monsters' names and a bit of their exploits before we got to meet them in the campaign and as a result, when the encounters occurred, they were both incredibly memorable for the players in my group. For me, that's tied for the best kind of encounter -- develop something cool, or even cool-sounding, to say as foreshadowing. Or not even foreshadowing, just namedropping.

...Tied for first -- remember Lord Baz from Shattered Star vol 2? And once again The Skinsaw Man from RotRL? Often, all it takes is a friggen Great illustration. When the PCs (AND DM looking for inspiration) see a great pic for a bad guy, yeah, it plays out well at the gaming table.

Second Darkness vol 2. could have been much, much greater had those encounters been even a little hinted at or the illustrations been stronger. Meanwhile, CotCT had some good, some average and some poor examples in "Seven Days to the Grave," all based on my criteria. (Rolf was such a GREAT build up -- and then such a disappointment when we never encountered him.)

Some things that don't often become memorable -- or really, completely depend on how the DM runss it: the chase sequence in Serpent's Skull vol 2. A disaster. Nothing memorable, nothing fun. No interesting NPCs, no foreshadowing, no illustrations at all let alone good ones.

Things such as that, and the "hurry up" sequence in Carrion Crown vol 2., suffer greatly unless the Players -- not the PCs, the players are interested.
And take another look at the chase scene in "Seven Days to the Grave" -- I went to the Boards after playing that and some folks enjoyed it and some HATED it. I think it depends on how the DM runs it. But if there's a bit of interest generated before the encounter, or a great illustration at the beginning of the encounter, we'll love it regardless of how the DM runs it -- and the DM will be more enthused to run it in the first place, ensuring it will be potentially much stronger.

Gain the players' interest with a bit of foreshadowing, hinting or namedropping and a great illustration. You have a great encounter.

[Dave Gross]

Great response, W E Ray.

[kaineblade83]

ThreeEyedSloth wrote:

** spoiler omitted **

** spoiler omitted **

That particular fight in Carrion Crown led to an entire party wipe from exactly what you mentioned as being the biggest threat. That was our third party wipe... le sigh, carrion crown you are a murderer.

[Rakshaka]

Some ones I've liked:

Runelords:

Yeah, the whole of Misgivings. Best haunted house in an adventure ever. Hands down.

Council of Thieves:

In the Asmodean Knot, there's a Bearded devil imprisoned that is completely insane and has an intelligent glaive. The combat itself was awesome due to the resistances and powers of the devil versus the fifth level party. What made it great was being able to play up the devil's personality as well as the Glaive's, it really made it memorable beyond 'just another Devil in a Devil-AP encounter'.

Kingmkaer:

Tower of the Dancing Lady. Don't know if its for 5th level (I played), but we hit it then. The variety of combatants, the use of environment and traps, and the flavor of the place itself made it one of the more memorable fights in the AP.

Carrion Crown:

Vorstag and Grine's is often cited as one of the best fights in the AP. What makes it so good is again a variety of unique opponents, an awesome environment that directly affects the encounter, and the background elements (mongrelfolk, fumes, closet full of stolen skins). While 3D fights are sometimes tough to do on a 2d map, those elements also made the fight quite memorable.

Legacy of Fire:

Gartok and crew get another nod here, though my PCs were 6th level when they fought him. My fight played out like ThreeEyedSloth's, chaining one fight into the next.

Age of Worms:

Spawn of Kyuss in Blackwall keep. There's enough foreshadowing that its easy to play up the horror factor and the Spawn had such a threat level due to the worms and how quickly they could kill. Plus as a first encounter with them, there's enough unknown about the Spawn that they are terrifying. Nothing's worse than failing the knowledge check to figure out how to stop what's going to kill you in a matter of rounds. For this reason, I feel that the spawn's horror factor has yet to be duplicated in any other CR 5 monster so far.

Edit: I repeated the word Memroable about 5 times, my grammatical sensibilities couldn't take it.