Megadungeon redesign needs advice

[Mark Hoover 330]

So IRL I'm running FGG's Lost City of Barakus and a long while back my players asked if, instead of going Slow advancement we go Medium. The idea was b/c we were only meeting IRL once a month, sometimes longer between.

Well, due to quarantine we took a long time off, but then came back at it hard and now the PCs are only about halfway through the module but they're about to hit level 6.

I need some help, advice or inspiration to add some dynamic, interesting fights to the game. The source material, being written for levels 1-5 is kind of on "easy mode." I mean, some of the monsters ARE very strong individually (some are CR 8-12!) but as far as the setting, the environment, there's really not a lot there.

It's a megadungeon featuring masonry, flat open 10' wide hallways, minor architectural features and very sparse furnishings. Fortunately for me the PCs haven't gotten that far in yet - still only a handful of rooms into a 60 + room level 2 of the 5 level dungeon.

Below I've got a basic primer of the party in a spoiler. The players are very strategic but as you can see, they've really aligned each of their PCs to one method of conflict resolution. One guy is really good at fire for example; he's not dumb and has taken a COUPLE other energy type damage spells, but he's weak on stuff like utilities, certain defenses, or out-of-combat type spells. The paladin has Quick Draw and a whole golf bag of melee weapons but if there are ranged foes he has mundane chakrams and a mw crossbow with mundane bolts.

Party APL 6:

players were allowed to roll their stats. Theo: Half-Elf U-Monk 6, Str 18 (16 +2 Race), Dex 18, Con 14 (13 +1 Advancement), Int 12, Wis 20 (18 +2 Item), Cha 9; Feats Two Weapon Fighting, Two Weapon Rend, Two Weapon Shield, Skill Focus: Perception, Dodge, Improved Grapple, Mobility. Janeel: Elf U-Rogue 6, Str 12(11 +1 Advancement), Dex 20 (16, +2 Race, +2 Item), Con 12, Int 14, Wis 18, Cha 13; Feats Weapon Finesse, Weapon Focus: Rapier, Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot. Yedlond Half-Dwarf Paladin (Abadar) 6, Str 15, Dex 12, Con 14 (11 +2 Race, +1 Advancement), Int 11, Wis 17, Cha 20 (18 +2 Item), Feats: Quick Draw, Power Attack, Furious Focus. Farrington: Human Wizard (Fire Wizard) 6, Str 10, Dex 16 (15 +1 Advancement), Con 12, Int 20 (16 +2 Race, +2 Item), Wis 12, Cha 11, Feats Scribe Scroll, Fast Learner, Improvisation, Craft Wondrous Item, Fast Study, Improved Familiar

I don't know why but I'm running into some kind of writer's block here. The only stuff I can come up with is the obvious; foes with fire resist/immunity, rooms with a pool or extreme cold, and a good mix of ranged attackers. I can't seem to envision anything cool and cinematic in terms of unique environments, environmental hazards, or really intricate monster/NPC builds.

And don't get me started on traps!

The group is paranoid about traps. They purposely travel slow and have figured out that any of them can SEARCH for traps, its just that only the Rogue has the skill to disable them. So unless there's a time crunch (I've got them currently hunting for a vampire lair in the dungeon before the next full moon when the creature will strike again, giving them their current adventuring day and one more day) they grind through every section methodically looking for traps, plus the Rogue has the Trapspotter talent!

I DID just have them encounter a Nightmare Ettercap with an Ogre Spider friend, with some Ettercap Traps hidden in the webbing. When the party burnt away the webs the traps went off and sprayed them with poisoned darts... that did little but tell the bad guys they were there and deal a couple D4 damage to the wizard and paladin.

So... if anyone knows some strategies they can suggest to build interesting megadungeon rooms/environments, or has monster builds/combos to throw out I'm all ears. Currently there are encounter themes revolving around Undead, Oozes, the concepts of Madness and Chaos, and of course it wouldn't be FGG if it didn't have a touch of Demons, specifically the faintest whiff of Orcus.

[VoodistMonk]

In no particular order...

Color Out of Space,
Vescavor Swarm,
Rat King,
Cave Trolls,
Masked Murderer...

[Mudfoot]

Add some terrain to begin with. Pillars, furniture, piles of rubble and rubbish, rickety stairs, an upper gallery, maybe a pit. It doesn't all have to be amazing, just something to break up the usual tactics. One of the best combats I've had was a long running fight up and down staircases, ropes and walls, through windows and into a river.

Vampires need it to be spooky. Swirling fog with ghostly faces vaguely visible in the murk, creaking, rattling, whispering and groaning noises. Church organ music.

Traps need to be there for a reason, and not used in isolation. So if they're just a bit of isolated damage, scrap them. But if the PCs have to deal with the trap while under attack, it becomes more significant.

[Quixote]

I actually don't think that mixing traps and combat are a good idea, normally. Traps *should be about playing smart and recognizing patterns, and adding them into combat where they don't have the time or opportunity to do those things just leaves you with a "gotcha!" situation.
I mean, there are exceptions, of course. An undead monstrosity in a room with some traps that deal negative energy damage would make things interesting. Or even better, a troll hanging out by some traps that spew flammable gas. But just like... you're fighting some ogres and PHHT! Ha-ha, arrow trap --not so much.

*they're not, actually. Most versions of D&D and Pathfinder don't ever use traps in a way that makes them interesting or fun At All.

As for some ideas for more dynamic encounters, going off the cuff:

- a large, open chamber where the PC's are limited in their movement (narrow bridge over a chasm/acid vat/etc), with enemies along the walls on either side peppering them with arrows or whatnot. Toss in some giant bats from above or grasping tentacles/pseudopods from below as needed.

- ruined catacombs full of fallen rubble, broken sarcophagi and some wights. A focus on difficult and impassable terrain. I suppose you could toss in a few ancient traps and an attic whisperer-type?

- a zombified demon-ooze? Something slow with crazy-good Regeneration that they Do Not want to get caught in melee with (super high grapple and it...I dunno...pulls out your bones and animates them as a skeleton or something). Then it's a race to an area where it cannot reach them, and every turn spent scouting ahead or searching for traps or picking locks is a turn where the slithering, rotting, unspeakable thing gets closer.

Above all, I'd make being methodical have a cost (not one they can't pay, just one that isn't free) and find a way to break up the "Sides A and B forms ranks with tough guys in front, artillery behind and mobility to the flanks, then charge" flow of every single encounter. Make your players fall back on their Plan B. Just don't make them fall back on Plan C, unless you have a lot of faith in them.

[VoodistMonk]

A dark library, complete with winding rows of bookshelves filled with volumes of rotting books. Cobwebs everywhere, isles blocked off by collapsed piles of books, and evidence of some long-past battle that took place here.

There are skeletons galore skattered throughout the library, thoroughly pincushioned with arrows. Along the outskirts of the library, there is a wrap-around balcony... hidden far into the shadows. From here, long ago, archers rained down murderous destruction on those below... think the shower house entrance the SEAL team makes in The Rock.

Maybe have the party run into a rat's nest... a Rat King and some Rat Swarms... if the party uses fire to deal with the swarms, roll some odd percentile chance that the books start to burn... add a sense of urgency as they meander through the labyrinthe, with a raging fire chasing them, blocking of retreat.

Once the party is completely lost in the endless labyrinthe of bookshelves, you have the ominous music start... and skeletons start to rise...

Advance the Masked Murder two more levels in Dirge Bard to get Dance of the Dead.

That's pretty much it... throw random skeletons and zombies at the party until you have used up some of their resources... they suddenly take the exact correct turn out of the maze, and there before them is a fancy Ghoul at the top of some stairs... with a shortbow... and the ghoul says hello by casting Confusion on the party.

[rorek55]

traps as difficult/impassable terrain work wonderful in combat.

Line of archers in a dungeon need safety? Put some some traps between them and the party!

[Mark Hoover 330]

Thank you all for the suggestions so far! I agree that traps in isolation have just gotten super boring. Even one of the players has complained. I also agree that some traps could have a use as a defense against local monsters, like the fire traps and trolls.

I do however want to combine monsters with terrain that works FOR them though. Like, in a different dungeon years ago I combined skeletons and a floor covered in caltrops. The skeletons' DR ignores the damage dealt and thus they ignore the speed reduction but the PCs might fall prey.

Looking over everyone's character sheets last night, I also realized that right now no one has a way to see through fog or mist, or to spot invisible creatures other than high Perception skills. No glitterdust or Faerie Fire, no See Invisible, no one has Scent or a Goz Mask or whatever.

Finally, in the source material there's some wear and tear on the masonry of the dungeon but I was thinking I might add some spots where, if people hit the walls or get launched into the ceiling or something, chunks of stone break free or maybe there's even a collapse.

If anyone else has suggestions, let me know. Thanks!

[Quixote]

Mark Hoover 330 wrote:

...some traps could have a use as a defense against local monsters, like the fire traps and trolls.

I do however want to combine monsters with terrain that works FOR them though.

If you're referring to my example, what I was getting at was: sure, you could use fire on this troll to knock out its Regeneration...but the whole party will take a ton of damage in the process. But so will the troll. So do you take the risk/take it down fast, or do you play it safe and take the time? Etc.

[Derek Dalton]

Some trap and monster ideas. The monster is Mimic door. I've thrown that at my PCs a few times never a good encounter. Here's why a rogue has to get close to check for traps and unlock the door. The encounter resulted in a wounded sometimes severly wounded rogue. Another monster idea which has done a lot of damage, a Drider. Change their spells a bit and they can be lethal. Make a ceiling in the room higher. Have the drider hide in a corner or right above the door. Take twenty on Stealth and more then likely the party realizes trouble only after the first spell. It won't go melee until out of spells limiting who can attack it,
Trap ideas. The trap didn't get set and activate until after the party fought the monster. The room sealed itself once they entered undetectable. The trap didn't actually start until they attempted to find a way out. Then water filled the room the disarming device not near the doors but inside what was considered decorations. Dc on finding and disarming it was pretty high as well.
Last thing one the first level of The Emerald Spire the floor was broken terrain. The second part of it was it was magically dark ruining Darkvision and light spells working out to only like fifteen feet. The monsters were not that tough but they didn't suffer from the lack of light or terrain they suddenly became rough

[Ryze Kuja]

Donjon Random Encounter Generator Just type in your CR and press generate til you get what you're looking for.

Donjon Random Dungeon Generator This will generate an entire dungeon, secret doors, traps, and its random monsters as well. Make sure to print out the Player's Map for what you'll use on the table in-Sesh, and either print or save a DM's copy of the map with all the notes and Secret Doors on it for yourself. Personally, I like the saved copy rather than the printed copy because it's much more user friendly. This is a perfect resource for creating megadungeons.

Combat Manager <---- This is my favorite resource, and I can use it to create/adjust any CR encounter based on anything I search for. It has a metric crapton of monsters to choose from.

1,372 Roadside Encounters If you have an hour to go through this, you'll find all kinds of neat stuff that your players find on the side of the road. This is best used when traveling from town to town and you want to make your world feel a little more alive with random stuff happening.

280 Homebrewed Monsters and Encounters If you don't have a Pintrest account, make one. And start following pages of guys like this. Create your own Pintrest folders and start saving the cool stuff you like to your own folders to keep it organized. And then whenever you're bored on the crapper at work, don't get on facebook, go search through Pintrest. Search for things like "Pathfinder Encounters" "D&D Encounters" "Homebrewed Monsters" "Fantasy Art <insert monster here>" And then when you're going through times of writer's block, go take a gander through your folders for some inspiration. You'll find that the more time spent searching for cool stuff and saving it to your folders will result in Future You saying "thank you" to Past You quite a bit.

100 Dungeon Encounters This is just a fantastic, well-thought out list that has a lot of cool encounters on it.

Fantasy Name Generators Need to name something? This has a couple hundred generators for just about anything the writer's-blocked-GM wants to name, whether it be a person, a temple, or an underground League of Ninjas. Before every sesh, I'll spend about 10-15 minutes generating some random names for humans, elves, dwarves, orcs, gnomes, drow, whoever they might come across during sesh, and putting them in my Excel Sesh file in a bunch of lists, and if the PC's ever blindside me with "what's this random guy's name?" I can say "Oh yeah... <waits for dramatic effect> Pleasure to meet ye fine folk, d'name's Thendrassil RandomPants the III" and the PC's think "oooo he's a named guy with his own GM voice, he must be important..."

[Dungeon Master Zack]

Well, for one thing, this is not a megadungeon, so that makes a difference for me at least. My most radical solution to either end the adventure early, or substitute parts of a different adventure that fits your players better. If you are unwilling to make such a radical change material from different adventures can at least give you ideas, or be inserted wholesale.

I might recommend using this thingy to create unique challenges for your players. Check out the Advanced Bestiary from Green Ronin for a variety of templates that can add new elements to your encounters. The templates are on d20pfsrd.com, so you can view them before buying the book if you choose to do so. There are many books full of random tables, including Pathfinder's own GameMastery Guide, the Ultimate Toolbox, the Tome of Adventure Design (by Frog God Games as it so happens). These can help inspire your creativity.