I have to (I mean get to) run another session of our World Serpent Inn campaign.
The World Serpent Inn is the bar version of Sigil, essentially.
So it's basically a one-shot adventure.
The PCs are 5th level, near the cusp of 6th.
Half-elf Fey Pact warlock. Mostly ranged damage via eldritch blast and hex, with sleep as a finisher.
Halfling Shadow monk. Can ki nova to do 4d6+20 damage!
(Human?) Oath of the Ancients paladin. I think sword & board.
Tiefling (Red?) Draconic sorcerer. He missed last session.
So anyways, what are some fun monsters to run? The last session was kind of an Inuit city with lots of ice and snow creatures, and ended up on Mechanus with lots of light-based creatures.
So I want to run something completely different.
Another caveat: I'm planning a steampunk/Dying Earth-type campaign (picture Sherlock Holmes & Conan the Barbarian flying on an airship, while battling pterodactyl-riding yuan-ti cultists of Cthulu). So I want to avoid those tropes as well!
So, any suggestions for fun CR 4 through CR 6 encounters for a one-shot adventure?
Some of those I'm saving for my "main" campaign.
Maybe the Cyclops... But I like the PF one better. I can totally steal that "Auto Natural 20" ability, right?
I used the young rhemoraz last week. It was fun.
Honestly, I'm thinking of doing a Moria-like dungeon crawl.
Maybe some orcs, a Large ogre with a Huge-sized flail--with reach, maybe some orogs.
Alternatively, I was thinking of doing something on the Astral Plane with homebrew neogi, with githzerai and tiefling slaves, and an umber hulk, of course.
Or I could do both. Last session had a bone & leather & snow-tech Inuit-like city AND a bastion of light Mechanus-based site.
Variety IS the spice of life.
So maybe a desert with giant sandwyrms? ;-)
I plan on my main campaign using a lot of dinosaurs and dragons, including wyverns, and an "underdark ruins" dungeon with drow, driders, and beholder zombies.
What do you think?
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So, I kind of wanna, sorta-kinda, re-create that scene with the orcs and mountain troll or whatever in Moria or whatever in the Fellowship movie.
Basically, a big dumb brute swinging an even bigger weapon around, causing panic and chaos amongst the PCs.
So, a Large ogre wielding a Huge weapon has disadvantage on attack rolls. Probably around +7 for 3d8+4.
How is this for a monster ability?
NEAR MISS: When the ogre misses with its giant flail, the target (and allies adjacent to it?) must make a DC 14 Wisdom saving throw or be frightened of the ogre for 1 round.
Does that sound fun and exciting?
What you might actually end up with is a frustrating melee experience in which everyone just misses while the ranged characters put down the work.
Though your PCs may have a decent chance to save, I think the Paladin will be proficient in Wis saves, and the Monk should have a +2 Wis or higher maybe.
Yeah, I don't want it to be a frustrating grind, I want it to be fun!
I think warlocks get good Wisdom saves, too.
Maybe I'll make the giant flail have the versatile property, too, so it will do 3d10+4 points of damage, which should be scary enough.
I roll in front of my players, and roll attack and damage dice at the same time, so the players will see the 3d10 being rolled...
But that's equivalent to a 1st level spell (inflict wounds) so maybe not that scary.
Or maybe 1st level spells are just that scary!
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I liked your idea.
The ability probably shouldn't work unless it is a reasonably close thing.
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I liked your idea.
The ability probably shouldn't work unless it is a reasonably close thing.
Cool!
RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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Since all I own is the PHB, I've been making stuff up for my monsters.
If I may toot my own horn a bit, I like what I came up with for zombies. They never just straight-up attack. They always start with grappling (or, if a couple other zombies already have grapples established, maybe pulling you down prone). A zombie that already has a hold on you will then use bite attacks.
Since there's always at least a one-round delay before any damage actually happens, you can get away with throwing in more zombies for the threat level than you could with other monsters of similar AC/HP, which lets you get the "hordes of shambling undead" trope going. Then they start grabbing you and dragging you down, for some more zombie apocalypse goodness. Then they start eating you alive while you're covered in crawly, grabby zombies.
:D
Jiggy, prepare to automatically fail any ability check that requires sight, have attack rolls against you have advantage, and make attack rolls at disadvantage.
Because you're gonna be robbed blind!
;-)
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Maybe on a hit, Str save or be pushed back 1d3 x 5 feet in random direction (1d10, 5 square arc of directions away from ogre).
And it's totally going to have a bunch of regular orcs or something with it. Maybe orogs using their superior cunning to use the big dumb ogre as a shock trooper.
I think prone PCs vs. orcs' Aggressive monster feature might be cool.
It's for a level 5 party, so I will probably make it a level 5 or 6 encounter by using 2 or 3 different types of creatures. Ogres are CR 2, maybe this one will be CR 3 since I'll probably boost its defenses a little to give it more staying power, too.
There will probably be terrain features, like low walls, a well, multiple doors connecting a bunch of inter-connecting chambers (maybe with another monster the orcs wanted locked up?), rubble, columns, etc.
Since summoning is less of a thing nowadays, I like the idea of caged beasties that can be released. A mechanical (instead of a magical) force multiplier.
Maybe the big ogre, an orog sergeant, orc soldiers, and some kind of caged beast? The sergeant would be in the back, unlocking cages. I'm thinking CR 1/8 to 1/2 beasts that can be killed with 1 hit, distracting the PCs from the orcs, and possibly going after some orcs if it looks like a TPK is imminent.
Cool! ** spoiler omitted **** spoiler omitted **
I liked your idea.
The ability probably shouldn't work unless it is a reasonably close thing.
Perfect!
Word!
I think I have some more monster ideas.
Mostly orcs and ogres. One encounter with the uber-ogre, orog boss, and orc minions, and possibly some caged wild boars. Another encounter with orc chieftain, Eye of Gruumsh, and more orc minions, and maybe some caged wild boars by the Eye.
Near one of the encounters, one of many doors has a big bloody X on it. Orcs are bad at spelling, and it stands for xombies. Gonna rip off Jiggy's grappling horde of zombies idea, with some ogre zombies for zest. A chimney will lead to a vertically aligned lair for a beholder zombie.
Another portion is going to be an underground river with 3 bridges over it, each going directly into the dungeon bits, with a zig-zagging path forcing (encouraging?) the PCs to cross each bridge (east to west, west to east, east to west again). I plan on some of the orcs throwing javelins from their bridge to the PCs' bridge. They will probably be guards (bait) for the orc chieftain's group's ambush.
I might also use some harpoon-wielding merrow to drag some PCs into the water by the deadly bridges.
I might even include a "Gollum-like" encounter for zest. I'm thinking of using a choker, possibly with rogue levels.
Since I won't be running a DMPC angel-wizard, I probably won't include a CR 19 demon. :-P
What about?
What about?
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Neat idea!
The PCs will probably be entering the dungeon from the World Serpent Inn, but tentacly goodness might be apt for the three bridges area or maybe near the exit of the dungeon.
I'm a big fan of tentacles. Not in a weird way, but barely not not in a weird way.
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What about?
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To build on this, not only is each tentacle essentially a separate creature that can move and attack on its own, they essentially try to grab the PC in question and then bring them over to the monster's mouth where it'll make a bite attack which actually deals significantly more damage.
This also makes it a bit of a puzzle monster: do the players simply try to destroy each tentacle (and once the creature has no more tentacles left it'll flee into the bottom of the pool again) or will one of them rush straight for the center of the monster (eating up a bunch of opportunity attacks in the process from the flailing tentacles) and destroy the central part of the monster?
To balance it out, I'd make each tentacle only have enough hit points that it can MAYBE survive a single attack from a PC but most of the time will get taken out by a solid hit, but just have there be like eight tentacles flailing around in combat.
Ratpick:
LOVING ALL those suggestions. I really like puzzle encounters like that. Kill all the tentacles first or the big mouth bit first?
I think my players would like it too.
Also: They can't talk their way out of it!!!!
;-)
A half-orc warlock? A tiefling sorcerer with some orcish blood? An ogre mage? Some kind of weird beholder-kin? The ghost of a wizard slain by the orcs and somehow enslaved by an Eye of Gruumsh? A wereboar shaman?
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I'd go with either the first or the last one.
The last one is fun too, but just to clarify: is it an orc wereboar? Either way, you can use this dude to surprise the players: have them start the combat by hanging back, buffing the warriors, and then when most of the warriors have dropped BOOM hulk out and start goring characters left and right!
Maybe BOTH!!!!
*evil grin*
Actually, a wereboar is only CR 4, so I can add 5 or 6 levels of druid casting to it, and still keep it CR 5 or 6.
**very evil grin**
***with tusks***
And maybe one of these?
And maybe one of these?
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Probably some astral sharks for zest!
I can put the tentacle monster in front of the portal to the Astral Plane the PCs are trying to go to. And that portal can be at the pool the river the 3 bridges go over empty into.
Maybe at the end of a long staircase and/or waterfall.
Now I just need a cool portal puzzle.
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Something like "Say the word, friend, and the door will open for you" in Elvish.
But not necessarily a linguistic in nature.
Okay here is a fairly basic idea.
If the gems are correctly placed the portal will activate when the command word is spoken. If the command word is spoken without the gems being in the correct spots the person uttering the command word gets zapped with 2d6 damage for every incorrectly placed gem (maybe DC18 dexterity check for half damage). The players will be able to deduce how many gems are correctly placed, they just don't know which ones are correct. The probability of getting the correct combination on the first go is 1 in 24. It should take about 3-4 tries to figure out the correct combination depending on how smart and lucky the players are. They may need to alternate who speaks the command word so that nobody dies
something similar, but without gems. The last adventure used a pearl as a portal key.
Maybe something to do with different energy types? I want to encourage teamwork, so maybe force from the warlock, radiant or thunder from the paladin, and something from the sorcerer? I think the warlock took Spell Sniper, so she might have shocking grasp or something, too.
The monk can supervise. :-P
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Or, and I know this is stretching D&D definitions a little, but -
I might move the tentacle monster to the end of the orc encounter area, probably on the Astral Plane.
Alternatively, I can put it in the very beginning, outside the main dungeon itself. Maybe even outside in the fresh air. It would be a nice bit of foreshadowing, since all of the D&D players have seen Fellowship of the Ring.
Once in the dungeon proper, there is a big room with some orcs in it, lead by an orog. The orog will definitely bring in the big bad mountain ogre with the giant flail (3d10+5!) from the room to the left. The room is really wide (90 feet?) by 30. In the opposite long wall are 3 doors, one with X for Zombies (orcs are bad spellers), a locked middle door, and an unlocked right door (that leads to rubble).
The door to the left is the ogre lair. The door to the right is also rubble strewn--and has a boulder that can be rolled back to reveal a secret staircase leading down.
The leftmost long wall door has a horde of zombies in it, who will do a grapple, prone, bite tactic because it's creepy--and there are like 2 dozen of them! Also a secret passage that leads to a beholder zombie lair.
The centermost locked long wall door leads to a grand, 10 foot wide stair case going down a vertical shaft about 40 feet wide, and at least 120 feet up and 120 feet down, wrapping around the wall widdershins. There door entering it is to the south, with a platform, in descending order, to the east, north, and south, each with a set of double doors. Creeping along the bottom of the shaft is a beholder zombie that will make an appearance by rising up from the darkness below if it detects anyone on those stairs.
The east and north doors will lead to the orc lairs, one lead by a war chieftain, one lead by a slightly boosted Eye of Gruumsh (capable of casting animate dead and mass healing word). The Eye of Gruumsh will have the hag eye of the coven of hags appearing towards the end of the dungeon.
After this portion of the dungeon, there will be a 40 foot wide river with 3 bridges crossing it in a zig-zag pattern, with some traps in the chambers around the bridges, some merrow harpoonists in the water below, and some archers or javelin-throwing orcs on the 3rd bridge area.
After the bridge area will be a troll guarding the gate to the oven. The troll will have a hag eye if the PCs didn't destroy the Eye of Gruumsh's, or if the PCs take a long rest after destroying the Eye of Gruumsh's.
The PCs will then encounter a coven of (probably blind) green hags. When 1 dies, its blood will be the gate that opens the portal to the Astral plane, and depending on how late the evening is IRL, summon a night hag, who will re-covenate with the existing witches.
(the night hag will have the trapped soul McGuffin the PCs are questing for)
If there is time, there will be a sojourn to the Astral Plane, with a neogi and its, githyanki, tiefling, and umber hulk slaves trading with the night hag for souls and/or larva.
The party struggled a bit with healing and locked doors, but they succeeded. They leveled up before the final 2 encounters, so were 6th level when battling the troll, and then the hags.
The shadow monk cast silence on the blinded hags, so it was pretty much shooting fish in a barrel. Blind and deaf fish.
:-P
They never got to cast any coven spells. :-(
The dungeon was riddled with secret passages, so I was able to add extra orcs if the encounter seemed too easy.
They took one or two long rests. They were able to avoid the zombie horde.
All in all, I think everyone had fun.
Glad to hear it was a success.
Yeah, it was fun. After level 6, everyone in the party has misty step or a similar ability (monk shadow step, warlock misty escape), so I think future encounters will be VERY dynamic!
:-D
A few people got dropped to 0 for a round or two, but no "real" deaths.
The only real worry was that near the end of the night, the PCs almost went through the wrong portal on the way home, and would have been thrust into the Astral Plane, and we would have ended at 2 AM instead of 11 PM.