The band of rag-tag adventurers stand at the gates to the very heart of Faerie. But the gates are guarded by an ancient power. In fact, the gates and the guardian are one and the same.
I need something suitably huge and astounding for the final session. Currently, I'm thinking of a 100-foot stone golem of sorts. But I'm going to abandon the normal rules of combat. I don't care how much damage you do with your axe, swinging it at a granite ankle that is 15 ft thick is going to do absolutely nothing.
I would like to emulate the fights from that game Shadow of the Colossus, as well as turn the monster into a sort of living dungeon.
Just wondering who out there has tried something like this and how they went about it. I have a few ideas, but I'd like to get some input first.
Make sure your players know that you'll be changing how the game works in advance, unless they're very flexible and chill.
Make sure your players know that you'll be changing how the game works in advance
Are you referring to the fact that their opponent will be unaffected by combat in any normal sense?
If so, then yes, I will obviously point out to them that their foe is as implacable and invulnerable as the ancient hills, and that to bear the full brunt of it's might will certainly mean death, etc.
I don't "trick" players into wasting their time and effort. The DM is responsible for any and all sensory information the characters experience, which in this case would include "holy eff that's big. Attacking that would be like a fly attacking me."
I am just looking for suggestions on mechanics to run such an encounter. The players, thei characters and the rest of the game are just fine.
At a first pass, I'm considering this:
(note: a lot of house rules present in my games. Apologies if certain things don't add up.)
-a character may make an Acrobatics check (DC15) to climb up the guardian at one quarter speed (or half speed with DC20). Failure by 5 or more means the characters falls.
-on the guardian's turn, a character must make an Athletics check (DC15) or fall.
-a falling,character may attempt a Reflex save to catch themselves (DC15 after 10ft., 10 after 20ft.), taking falling damage for the distance traveled.
A character adjacent to a falling character (at any point during the fall) may make a Reflex save to catch the falling character. The falling character still takes damage for the distance traveled.
-a character capable of flight may make an Acrobatics check (DC20) to fly along the surface of the guardian close enough to interact with it and with other characters climbing on it. Failure by 5 or more results in a collision.
-on the guardian's turn, there is a 30% chance a character may be struck by falling debris (01-70: 2d4 rocks, +5 melee, 1 damage each; 71-100: boulder, +5 melee, 2d6+5).
-every time a character climbs up the guardian, there is a 30% chance they encounter a trap (Perception and Disable Device* DC20):
01-40: spear, +5 melee, 1d8+5
41-70: stone jaw trap, +10 melee, 1d8 and grappled, CMD20
71-90: lava spout, 4d6 fire and ignite, Reflex 14 halves
91-100: lightning bolt, 6d6 lightning, Reflex DC17 avoids.
*Disabling these traps takes one full-round action.)
-the guardian attacks a 15ft. radius area once every three rounds, dealing 5d10+10 damage (Reflex DC15 halves).
A character on the ground in a square occupied by the guardian takes 2d10+5 damage (Reflex DC15 avoids) at the end of the guardian's turn due to it's shifting mass and falling debris.
-the gateway is on top of the guardian's head, 100ft. off the ground. A character may make a Disable Device check (DC25) to open it.
I'll add some gargoyles that live on him, as well as ancient runes and signs that could give bonuses to Perception checks to see traps and Disable Device checks to disarm traps and open the gate.
Any other ideas? I want this to feel big and important and dangerous and desperate. I also don't want characters to get stuck in a rut, doing the same thing over and over. As a general rule, I don't want a character to take the same action for more than three turns in a row, on average.
Have you thought of the gigantean template?
I’m out of time for now, but that’s the first thought that comes to mind.
Have you thought of the gigantean template?
I had not. After 3rd and 3.5, I stopped buying supplemental material. Eventually, I stopped even looking at it, for the most part. If I need something unique, I've found its better to make it myself.
After looking up this template...it's just a bigger version of the same monster, yeah? So it gets to act once every six seconds, just like a normal monster, and poking him in the toe with a rapier will, eventually, defeat him. They just added ruled about attacks of opportunity, occupied squares and climbing him.
It just doesn't import the immensity of the thing in the way I'm looking for.
They just began to take the steps I'm trying to take, but they didn't nearly go far enough.
This is not a big monster. This is a walking dungeon, a sentient mountain.
Upon further inspection, I need a way to reward them for intelligent decisions, rather than just punishing/rewarding them based on dice roles.
I think I'll draw the surface of the Guardian horizontally on the grid, with each square representing 2ft (two of the characters climb at 10/20ft a round, while the other is 12/24ft).
I'll have icons to represent different areas:
-patches of hanging ivy offer good hand and footholds, granting a +5 to Acrobatics and Athletics checks to climb.
-overhanging statuary and parapets protect those directly below from falling debris.
-spear traps are marked by signs of the Sacred Hart.
-jaw traps are marked by signs of the Hunting Hound.
-lava spouts are marked by signs of the Golden Sun.
-lightning traps are marked by signs of the Silver Moon.
-knowledge (nature) DC15 will grant a +2 on Perception to find the traps. 20 grants a +4 to disabling them. 25 grants a +4 to opening the gate. A character may learn one fact per turn per area of runes read.
Now, it's an encounter about literal path-finding; do you climb straight up, going for the quick victory, or do you move from one protected spot to the next? Do you avoid the traps and stay out in the open, or do you disable them to pave the way for your slower comrades?
What level are the characters?
They are level 6.
Are they somehow forced to climb (or fly very close) to the Guardian rather than fly/dimension door up to the head bypassing all of the rest of the creature/dungeon. Why do I get an image of an immense hand swatting any flyer that isn't basically flying in tight against the Guardian. Maybe it blows an immensely powerful blast of air (i.e. breath weapon) at such flyers (in addition to getting a lot of Gargoyle attention).
One of the characters can fly, but she'll need to hang back to help her comrades/avoid getting mobbed by gargoyles.
Do they even know the gate is at the top or do they have to search for it as they climb?
You mention treating the Guardian like a living dungeon, perhaps there's an interior route to the top as well as the climbing route.
I have been playing around with the idea of climbing up and then walking inside, but I'm concerned about session run time; they've got to get through the haunted forest/enchanted orchard, deal with the Guardian and then have their final confrontation with Oona and Puck, all in 3 hours of real time.
Wow. That is a lot. Thank you for taking the time to come up with all that.
Unfortunately, I have a very clear tone, theme and mood for my settings and games, so I can't just copy and paste other people's ideas as-is. Still, it's heartening to see people on here doing more than swapping hyperlinks, running modules and trying to come up with the most "optimized" build.
As far as inhabitants for this dungeon (I imagine him as a hill, topped with ancient stones and henges, heaving up out of the ground to reveal a titanic figure of rune-covered stone and crumbling sod), I've got the stats made up for two different kinds of gargouille; one is similar to those found in the Bestiary, where the others are Tiny-sized monsters (dragons, griffons, imps, etc.) that want to latch on to the PC's and bite them/pull them down.
I think, instead of specific keys or items to find, the players will have to decipher runes to uncover secrets about how the golem works (the alchemist is the most imbalanced character in the group and has a +14 to the appropriate Knowledges), simply because there's just so much surface area to cover.
And as much as I'd like to include a whole inner-chamber element to this encounter, I need this to take 1-1.25 hours, and these players have played D&D less than a dozen times total. So, even when I push them hard to keep the pace going, things tend to drag. I mean, we're still at this stage:
"Roll initiative."
"...that's a d20, right?"
"Yup."
"...that's this one, right?"
Also, and I know this is off-topic, but "I didn't put a CR on this because it might just be a talking scene or it might be a fight..." struck a bit of a chord with me.
Any situation where there is a dramatic question of the narrative is an encounter. Be it a scene involving picking someone's pocket, a fight to the death, doing research in an old library, or even just talking.
At any rate, thank you again for your comments, your time and your effort. It's good to see that sort of thing out there on the web.