Ok, let me be upfront about this. I'm no good at creating new monsters and the like. But I had an idea for a haunt and would appreciate any positive input on it.
The Haunt is called Seven Widows Bridge. The story behind it is they were forced to watch as their husbands were hanged from the bridge for crimes they didn't commit. So my conundrums are:
1. What would the effect of such a haunt be?
2. How would it affect the PCs?
3. What would its CR be?
4. How would you defeat it?
Thanks in advance.
This would really all depend on what sort of effect you want for the haunt. Typically haunts emulate spell effects.D epending on the haunts difficulty to spot, hit points, reset time, and effect; their CRs can vary greatly.
All haunts start combat on initiative 10, and have a number of hit points. Typically they only take damage from have positive energy applied to them in the form of Channeling. If the haunt's hit points are brought to zero before it's turn, it doesn't go off.
Destroying a haunt usually requires that you do something in the area to honor our appease the restless soul that is creating the haunt. For example, buying bones, destroying/cleaning an item etc.
The way you describe how the spell effect manifests is up to you. For example. I had a haunt where a girl was drowned in a tub. When the player triggered the haunt, they were hit with an equivalent of phantasmal killer. They had to make the saves accordingly, Will then Fortitude and were affected as per the spell.
I describe it as the player suddenly being thrown into an empty tub, hand prints pressing into the flesh around their neck and they started coughing up water. The player had failed both saves, so he was killed, effectively from drowning.
You could do something similar, like any man who attempts to cross the bridge and makes their perception check sees the seven men hanging. They then find themselves with a noose suddenly wrapped around their neck. Depending on how harsh you want it, you could go the Phantasmal Killer route, or just with straight damage. There are rules on adjusting/calculating CR which can be found here:
EDIT:
I should note that the CR of the haunt should be appropriate for the party level, since I don't know what level you party is, I can't speak much to that. Also, a good way for the haunt to be taken care of once and for all would be to absolve the men of their crimes; since they didn't commit them. It could be a fun bit to RP and investigate.
Well, for starters, great information for creating haunts can be found here .
Secondly, this idea seems pretty awesome. I might suggest the following:
1. Effect: perhaps the haunt triggers a Rage spell, and a confusion spell at the same time. This would be to symbolize the anger and betrayal the spirits felt when they were wrongfully killed for crimes they didn't commit.
2. Affect: when the party walks across the bridge, perhaps if they stray too far towards the side where the husbands were hung, they would have the spells listed above trigger on one/two of them, and see the ghostly image of 7 men hanging by the supports of the bridge. You can get pretty creepy with the audio/visual portions of haunts.
3. Per the haunt rules, the CR is typically 1+ the spell duplicated. So, I would say probably a CR 6? That's if you kind of average the spell levels. Rage being a level 3 Wizard spell (2 for Bards) and Confusion being a level 4 (3 for bards). However, because this particular haunt has the potential for the party to fight each other (something not every group enjoys quite like mine does) you might want to assign a CR 7 or 8. And then you have to calculate things like reset time and the Notice DC, so that might vary even more.
4. I would think that defeating the haunt could be done in a few different ways. You could, for instance, have the party attempt to seek justice by bringing the real criminals to the law. Or, simply put the husbands spirits to rest by doing ------. Like, consecrating the ground they're buried on, or something similar.
How in depth are you thinking to make it? Are the widows still alive? Why did the law enforcers believe the men were guilty, even if they weren't?
Anyway, hope this gives you some ideas! Keep in mind that haunts can take all kinds of different forms and effects. Good luck.
Having at least one of the widows still living is a good idea, because she can fill the PCs in on what happened. Granted, my current PCs are all 11th level with a Mythic Tier or two under their belts, but I may have the chance to run this game for some other folks soon. My son wants me to run a game for him and some of his friends, and I was stuck for encounters. This could be the focal point of the adventure.
Those are great ideas, guys! Thank you!
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I would suggest looking at the spell Call of the Void for some inspiration. It had great flavor text and it's effects are pretty close to what you might want if a haunted character is being 'hung' by the neck. In this case, the spell effect would target a square on the bridge and everyone adjacent to that square would suffer the effects. Describe as hanging from a rope.
Hope this helps!
That's a great spell! I've never seen it before.