[NFSW] Exotic Terrains - Heroic Tier

[EP]

Work is boring. Gaming is fun. Work should be more like gaming.

Not Suitable For Work is a new addition to Combat Advantage, the free 4e series of PDFs from Emerald Press PDF Publishing. Every month will have a theme to which any number of brainstorming exercises will be made. Each week or so, we will post a new thread for 4e material utilizing that theme and everyone is open to submit their concepts on EN World. The trick to this game is that you must rely on your memory of the game and cannot use any supplements, core rulebooks, or online references - simply use your innate knowledge of the game to create new material on the fly. Accuracy is not immediately required - these are brainstorms for new ideas, concepts, and add-ons to 4e. Throw in your ideas, no matter how crazy they are because you never know what they may lead to.

NSFW is not a contest and is designed solely as a recreational design exercise for those of you stuck at work, school, or anywhere else on your lunch breaks with nothing to do. Waiting for that report to come back from management? Homework? Eww. Check out the theme and post your ideas for this week’s exercise. There’s no voting, no deadlines, or bad ideas. It’s all about having a little bit of fun while the boss isn’t looking. Enough talk!

Exotic Terrains​

The dungeon is nothing without bottomless pits, slime covered floors, and floors of rolling lava. All the natural (and supernatural) features of the landscape provide the appropriate mood and danger to any dungeon crawl, so we're going to make some more. This one actually comes by demand and we're only happy to oblige.

Each week will focus on one tier of play, starting with Heroic this week, Paragon the next, and wrapping it up with the Epic tier.

Exercise #1 - Heroic: Provide any number of exotic terrains usable against any Heroic-tier characters. This can include any terrains in the Known World, the Feywild, or the Shadowfell.

Post your ideas below. Remember these are exercises built for enjoyment and mental exercise of the game. Accuracy is not required on every little detail and some mistakes are forgiveable. (See?) If you'd like to post a revised version of your entry, just be sure to type in which version under Reason for Edits. If you want to post more than one entry, go crazy. It's all just in the name of having fun while you're not supposed to.[/SIZE]

 

[Sporemine]

Ok, Here we go.

Voidstone - Concentrated negative energy.

These large (1 square) stones stay buried under the ground until they sense the prescence of positive energy (living things). The square of voidstone moves 1 square towards the nearest living creature at the end of each round, gliding through the ground. All that can be seen of this is a polished flat stone, sitting just above the ground. If the voidstone ends up under a living creature, at the beginning of that creature's turn, it takes 3d10 necrotic damage and is weakened (save ends). If it ends up under an undead creature, it heals 3d10 points of damage. It (the undead) also gains a +2 to all attacks and defenses as long as it remains in contact with the stone.

These are not safe. Be careful about how many you use.


Thin glass over a pit

Any creature standing on the glass needs to succeed on a dc 10 acrobatics check whenever it moves or attacks to avoid breaking the glass and falling 10 feet (1d10 damage). After it's broken, the glass becomes a 10 foot pit to a lower level.

Any character on or under the glass can attack a square with a melee or ranged weapon (ac 15 or, if a creature is standing on it, use the creature's ac) any hit breaks it.

I'll post more later

-Sporemine

 

[malcolm_n]

I had some trouble figuring out how to contribute here, since I have done little work with terrain to this point in 4e. But, seeing the submission above gave me an idea.

Mind Nettle [Heroic] level 5 Hazard
This dangerous vine tears at body and mind.
Space: burst 1 or 2
Effect: The area is difficult terrain. Creatures that start their turn in the mind nettle treat all creatures as enemies until the end of the turn and attack the nearest creature if able during their turn.

 

[Apeiron]

Awesome

i like these ideas! Nice!

(this is a ripoff of an idea from the WotC fora)

Zombie Pit - The PCs must cross grates covering pits full of zombies. The zombies can reach through the bars to grab and claw at ankles. They can also pull appendages through the grate.

You could make it less dangerous by making them non-infectious.

Simply crossing it would be difficult, fighting on it... yikes. It would be a great place for a fight with a vampire. The zombies would ignore him and try to pin down and devour the PCs.

What sort of stats should it have?

 

[Flipguarder]

Wandering Demi-plane
These twin invisible pockets act as a random conduit to one another.
Level 7 lurker hazard
Init: +8
Space: 2 different squares at least 10 squares apart
Effect: These pockets move between 10 and 20 squares of each other. They each move two squares each round in a random direction. When you enter or start your turn in a square adjacent to either pocket it transports you adjacent to the other pocket in a random space. Roll a d8 to determine which square adjacent to the pocket you are transported to. Attempting to enter the pocket leads to the pocket transporting you again.

123
4X5
678

 

[Rechan]

Wild Earth: At some point, this area (soil, stone, etc) has been mildly polluted with chaotic energies. Due to the limited level of potency, the chaotic forces influence luck.

While standing on a square in this area, all attacks that would be considered a hit are in fact a miss. All attacks that would be a miss are in fact a hit. Rolling a 1 is a critical hit, rolling a 20 is always a failure.

 

[Mesh Hong]

Sinking Sands

A large area (maybe even the whole encounter site) is on an area of soft, silty sand that slowly sucks anything on the surface down until it is buried.

- All creatures starting their turn on the sand take a -1 penalty to their speed

- Any creature that does not move at least 1 square during its turn starts to sink into the sand and is slowed until the end of its next turn. If a creature is already slowed it is instead restrained and must make an athletics check (medium DC) to break free of the sands inexorable pull. If a creature is already restrained they are pulled under the surface and take 1d10 ongoing damage, are restrained and must make an athletic check (hard DC) to break free.

I would recommend the the area also contains a few small patches of solid ground that the PCs and enemies could fight over for a safer combat position. For a little added fun these "hard points" could themselves slowly sink and new ones rise during the course of the encounter. Maybe some rocks can only hold the weight of 1 creature before starting to sink, maybe some can hold 2?

 

[EP]

Sporemine: The voidstone is cool (just for the name alone), but I really like the glass idea. I'm imagining a giant glass floor to fight on, shattering sections of it each round as the fight carries on. In fact, see some of my ideas for encounter below...

malcolm_n: I'm curious how the mind nettles affect their targets. Picturing them casting an illusion to make allies look like enemies and vice versa is how I'm picturing it or even something as simple as being so thick you can barely make out friend from foe. Of course, various versions of the nettle can work too...

Apeiron: Can never go wrong with zombies, including a horde of them. I'd say anyone standing on these squares is grabbed by the zombies. If they can't break free by the next round, they're prone and start taking damage if they are prone and haven't escaped by the third round. This allows allies to come to your rescue while the fight goes on. Very dramatic. See the encounter idea below...

Flipguarder: I've been playing Zelda: Twilight Princess recently (I know, a bit behind the times) and something like this completely works in a dungeon. Popping back and forth between two hallways and having to unlock something in one hallway to get further in the other... I like the idea of a hazard you can actually use to your benefit. Very cool.

Rechan: I could have used some wild earth in my last game - total dud rolls. Cool stuff.

Mesh Hong: ...or even with vines to grab hold of. Sinking sand definitely adds a nice danger to any encounter and there's something about fighting on quicksand to get the imagination fired up.

Very nice stuff, everyone. It's even given me some ideas for an encounter.

Glass Floors/Zombie Pit
The room open up into a 20' by 20' expanse. The floor is made entirely of glass set into metal frames, making each pane separate from the others. Waiting beneath the floor as a swarm of zombie mashed together, each of them reaching up towards you and their mouths salivating. With your first step on the glass, you hear the crack of your weight threatening to break the floor out from under you.

With each passing step, you run the risk of breaking the glass and falling to the zombies below. And once you toss in some artillery to shoot out the glass...

 

[ComputerSherpa]

Wild Earth: At some point, this area (soil, stone, etc) has been mildly polluted with chaotic energies. Due to the limited level of potency, the chaotic forces influence luck.

While standing on a square in this area, all attacks that would be considered a hit are in fact a miss. All attacks that would be a miss are in fact a hit. Rolling a 1 is a critical hit, rolling a 20 is always a failure.

Madness. If your players are like mine, they'll quickly turn their minds to driving their attack bonus as low as it can possibly get to take advantage of this. Expect to see people holding their swords by the wrong end, blindfolding themselves for the -5 to hit, and generally developing sudden-onset retardation.

 

[Mesh Hong]

Madness. If your players are like mine, they'll quickly turn their minds to driving their attack bonus as low as it can possibly get to take advantage of this. Expect to see people holding their swords by the wrong end, blindfolding themselves for the -5 to hit, and generally developing sudden-onset retardation.

Its sad but true.

A more appropriate Chaos Effect might be to have all attacks taken from inside the zone target a random creature within reach/range, you could also include the person making the attack as a valid target for the hilarious sight of people attacking themselves.