Have the hideout be along the beach, and have the tide go in and out. If they're not fast, they'll have to swim out.
Some form of undead are always fun. Perhaps they threw a corpse in the back room and it's strong rage caused it to get back up and try to kill them. They locked it in a room because they couldn't kill it, which the players just so happen to accidentally open up...
Bloody skeletons are suitably difficult to kill.
I have a few recommendations for oozes! First off, you could throw a few Sanguine Ooze Swarms at them. While swarms are normally really challenging for a low-level party, these things don't do a ton of damage by themselves, and are mostly just annoying. Secondly, I suggest a good old-fashioned Giant Amoeba or Amoeba Swarm. All of these can easily be kept around for general body removal purposes, or perhaps because slimes they produce can be refined into some sort of valuable/illicit product.
Guard animals, or a dim but powerful monster nearby that scares away the curious?
Pit traps? Locked gates? Treasure chest with poison snake inside? Alarm?
|
If you are looking for maybe a dungeon encounter or 2, then i suggest using the pathfinder RPG bestiary encounter tables, probably low level dungeon, here.
Right in front of the "treasure room" or bandit stash you could have:
- a puzzle
- a boss fight
- or a combination of both.
While not a change in variety, having young (child-like) bandits would throw the party off. They wouldn't want to straight murderhobo the bandits when they see a bunch of kids (hopefully). But then they might have to when they get ambushed.
I would hold the ooze until they are level 3 especially if they are newer players. But large insect/rodent types are always good for just natural enemies that the bandits avoid but are present.
Crossbow traps with a trip wire or some such would not be unusual for bandit types to set up.
Maybe a good use for the Childlike feat. A bunch of "children" under the "employ" of Half-Orc "receiver of stolen goods."
Another quick question... If I'm going to have a cave be the first hideout, what kind of "rooms" will the PC's find? I've thought about: barracks/sleeping, mess hall, weapons locker, kitchen/cooking location (possibly same location as sleeping location or even mess hall), minor boss' private area... (keep in mind that the PC's should spent less than a day in the cave and they should have a long rest after the cave is cleared).
Bathrooms, Sparring / Training Area, Loot / Illicit Trade Goods Storage Area
In kingmaker some bandits have a trapped owlbear that they release if the fight goes sideways so you could maybe have some bear be a miniboss as the bandits realize they are losing
An imprisoned rare animal of some sort -- the PCs can just leave it in the cage, in which case nothing happens. Or they can release it from the cage, in which case it will attack them. Or they can try to communicate (Handle Animal skill check, or speak with animals, or just feed it), in which case they have a friend for the rest of the hideout (and maybe longer).
A prisoner being held for ransom -- he mostly wants to just bolt, but if offered weapons and a share of the loot, or if he's made friendly with the Diplomacy check, he will help the PCs fight the bandits. Or the captive could be a classic Screaming Maiden who clings to the PCs and alerts everyone in earshot. No reason you couldn't have both, actually.
A femme fatale who's here making money off the bandits, and might be inclined to take the same approach with the PCs. Do not use if your PCs are not up for this sort of thing.
A door, locked and barred with plenty of warning signs. There's an undead, or maybe some kind of ooze behind it, but the PCs don't have to fight it if they don't want to. (They could just leave the door barred!)
A back way into the lair, or maybe out of -- if they search for an escape route, it's a not-too-hard Perception check to find it (DC 15? 17? It wasn't concealed by Penn & Teller) If they use it, they get to bypass bandit guards and can maybe hit some of them by surprise.
Definitely some guard animals (dogs are classic, whether little yappy alarm dogs or big mean mastiffs).
A small cave network should have some, or all, of the following rooms:
1) sleeping area, preferably interior & protected from weather/outdoors
2) kitchen/eating/food storage, maybe as connected rooms
3) loot storage (preferably dead-end and guarded or at least secured)
4) some kind of sinkhole down and/or chimney up to the surface, maybe with some treasure at the bottom if the PCs can make a Climb check or lower someone in on a run (the bandits didn't notice it when someone fell in and lost a few things from their pockets)
5) a small area dedicated as a chapel to some kind of bandit deity with a few trophies hung on the walls. Maybe an evil adept or level 1 cleric is sleeping here.
6) a latrine/bathroom area, IF the bandits are well-disciplined (otherwise they just go in back corners and maybe a couple of them are weakened from filth fever).
7) a room for the bandit captain and/or a couple of prisoners to sleep, again guarded or sealed.