Hi all
The PC's are about to enter an underground library belonging to a CR 8 Drow Flame Oracle. The Oracle will not be there when they arrive. I plan to hide the entrance with a secret door but other than that I'm looking for some challenges within the room, it can be a trap or a guardian monster/monsters.
Do you have any ideas/advice in the matter? I'm not experienced with Drow encounters. Are there certain monsters they like to enslave for these kinds of purposes? Something incorporeal that springs on them might be better than just a big monster sitting in the room. The room itself is not that large.
We have two clerics (Serenrea and Torag), one ranger, one Barbarian and one investigator. APL is 7.
Thanks!!
Stereotypical Drow prefer misdirection, pain, terror, and cruelty. There should be zero light and maybe some means of enforcing that darkness, maybe a monster with a darkness SLA. If no PCs have darkvision, punish them for their lack of vision... pun intended.
Libraries tend to have high ceilings, so a Lurker Above or Trapper Lurking Ray can stay out of torch range until they can drop on a PC.
Any form of spider or spider-like monster is usually appropriate for a Drow.
Unless the library is specially designed or warded, the Flame aspect of the antagonist is probably best kept far away, by their own design - they know exactly how dangerous fire is to old books, after all.
Are you saying a Drow's "hangout" should have no light sources of any sort?
In case it wasn't clear I'd just like to stress out that the library is not deserted or anything, it's fully occupied and lived in, it's just the owner is not there when the PC's arrive and is due back shortly afterwards.
Thanks for the suggestions!
Unless you're using the old 2e rules about infravision (now darkvision) not being enough to read by, there's no need for light, the owner can read his books just fine in the dark. :) Light is irritating to the Drow, who are adapted to the perfect dark. Unless it's bright light it doesn't come with mechanical penalties, but the only reason to have any light at all would be if he expected to have non-darkvision visitors and cared about their comfort. If it's just him.. well, would you just sorta sprinkle itching powder on your furniture, or skunk musk in your air? Sure, it wouldn't kill you, but you wouldn't want to live in it.
I see. OK, cool. Well, stepping into a darkened room actually makes the scene cooler.
But since the PC's are holding several torches, will that have an adverse effect on the Drow's vision when she finally comes in to see who's been slinking into her lair? (she's an NPC that's supposed to supply some information, no combat is planned, unless the PC's are unusually aggressive. I'm asking for role-playing purposes).
only if they use a magic item or spell that produces bright light. Torches and non-magic lanterns only get up to normal, so it's annoying but doesn't affect her enough to do anything to her mechanically. A sunlight spell or other bright light source (like natural sunlight) will blind her for a round, then keep her dazzled until they get out of the light, though.
https://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/rules-for-monsters/universal-monster-rule s/#Light_Blindness_Ex
So short version, no, she'll be fine.
Other encounters, for an Oracle of Flames, might involve bound Fire based elemental creatures such as Elementals or Mephits. For Incorporeal, how about Shadows? They will be hard to target in the dark and low enough CR (CR 3) to add into a larger encounter. Finally, if the party is REALLY carrying mundane, fiery torches and not magical light sources, how about a spell trap that messes with their torches?
The secret door entering the library might open not directly into the area of books itself but on a stairwell or hallway acting as a transition into the larger vault. This area is warded by a Large Fire Elemental that keeps intruders at bay.
Once past the elemental, as a defense against any trespassers making it into the library on fire or carrying torches around the books, a Gust of Wind spell trap extinguishes mundane fire and perhaps even hinders a PC. The spell trap in turn attracts a pair of Shadows who move in to drain Str from the PCs. If you want an even harder encounter, augmenting the Shadows with an Advanced Huge spider slowing the party down with webs and such could help.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Golarion drow in particular worship a variety of demons, and so may have various demonic creatures bound as guardians. They're also famous for 'fleshwarping' captives to create grotesque hybrid guardian thralls like the drider.
You could play up the oracle of fire aspect a bit, and the spider thing at the same time.
Use the stats for a spider swarm, but modify it to make them more fire elemental like. Looking at the template for Fiery Creature I'd say its isn't elemental enough. So a few bumps to make this go from CR1 to a CR4ish creature: Add 2 HD. Add Immune to Fire and Elemental Traits (fire). +2 to all saves, +2 to Distraction and poison DC. Add vulnerability to Cold based attacks, and they take 1d4 damage from having significant volumes of water splashed on them.
Add some fire spider elemental-themed traps to the room. Like they shaped the fire from several candles/braisers to form 'webs' made from fire. Each works like a wall of fire, but only do 1 point of fire damage to anyone standing within 5' of them, or 1d6 fire to anyone that passes through the fire web. With a DC 15 Disable Device check the source of the fire can be safely extinguished. If failed, the fire is still extinguished but you suffer the 1d6 fire damage.
Anyone with Create Water memorized can use it to great effect. They can put out the spider webs safely, and do 1d4 per casting to each swarm. Not bad for a zero level non-combat spell. Of course the books could be damaged by water. The spiders don't damage the books because they are trained not to. The spiders have no intelligence, but are friendly to the Oracle. The swarms attack when anyone approaches within 10' of a web. It would be a DC 20 perception check to notice the fiery spiders hiding within the flaming web. i.e. nearly impossible for the party. A DC 15 should give the party the obvious "The webs made of fire seem unnatural and to flicker and flare as you approach." warning.
These are some great suggestions. Thanks, everyone!
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