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I'm sure that this question has been asked before, but I'm pretty new to this forum, and I didn't see it mentioned recently.
As a DM I have realized that I do not make use of creative terrain as often as I should. What are some creative or challenging settings for combat encounters? DMs guides often have suggestions, but are there any ones that you and/or your players have really liked? It can be terrain that makes an encounter harder, or simply adds a certain je ne sais quoi.
I'm sure that this question has been asked before, but I'm pretty new to this forum, and I didn't see it mentioned recently.
As a DM I have realized that I do not make use of creative terrain as often as I should. What are some creative or challenging settings for combat encounters? DMs guides often have suggestions, but are there any ones that you and/or your players have really liked? It can be terrain that makes an encounter harder, or simply adds a certain je ne sais quoi.
Thanks for your expertise!
Well, too much of one thing tends to become redundant; however you can make terrain as part of a checklist that you go through when you design your encounters. I do agree that DM's tend to overlook this, particularly for environments when is terrain should matter such as caves or swamps.
I had an encounter in an ancient barn, with worn support beams every several squares. Whenever anyone fought adjacent to a beam, there was a chance they would knock it down, sending a hail of heavy debris on their (and the ghouls') heads. It added a little extra caution to an otherwise kill-the-ghouls fight.
__________________ "Help! I'm being attacked by giant, prehistoric wildebeests!"
"Hmm...sounds like Dire Gnus."
Fighting on two ships at sea, one deck higher than the other and spaced 5' apart. The combatants have to move from ship to ship as the battle rages.
The old lava filled cave. As have of the group gets across the lava pool/river, they are attacked. The rest of the party has to quickly get across to help.
Eberron - On a moving Lightning Rail.
Up and down the agricultural terraces of a mountainside village.
A narrow bridge crosses a ravine. Archers behind cover start attacking from one end. Once the party gets about 1/2 of the way across, mounted troops charge from the rear.
A dinner party gone wrong...fighting on, around and under a dining table.
Eberron - On moving sky skiffs in Sharn
Fighting a through a city that is under attack by a third party (dragons, in my case).
All of these come out of a style I sometimes adopt. Sometimes when I don't know what to do next in the game, I start thinking about a cool moment, an image, or a theme I find fun. Then I will draw the entire session's adventure around that moment.
How are you preparing your encounters currently? The easiest thing is to get a pad of 1" grid paper, or a dry erase board to draw it out. Start simple until you and your players get used to battlefield options. Just add a few areas of difficult terrain. To add more complexity throw in some cover points (trees, wagons, buildings etc.) and some concealment (underbrush, fog, smoke etc.)
Depending on your comfort level and PC resources, you can also utilize many of the free maps out there. Sites like the cartographers guild provide such tactical maps which you can print, or scale-up and print as needed.
I should add some notes about terrain because it’s not always obvious (maybe it’s in the DMG but I have forgotten).
Difficult terrain: This controls the flow of the battlefield. When placing difficult terrain, consider where the choke points are because this is where the fight will likely gravitate toward. Place artillery creatures on the far side of the difficult terrain to force the PCs to make hard choices and add tension to the encounter. Difficult terrain rewards mobile pcs.
Cover / concealment: This can actually extend the time it takes to run the encounter. Both PCs and monsters alike become harder to hit when behind cover. This type of terrain rewards stealthy pcs.
Special / hazard terrain: Transparency is the key here. If there’s a raging bonfire in the middle of the battlefield tell the pcs how much damage it would deal. You do this because PCs won’t assume it does more or less damage than their powers. By giving them the information, they can weigh whether or not they actually want to try it.
As a DM one of the best battles was in a 5 layered rectangular "donut" with stairs at either end. You could see one level below and two levels above (with cover). The 6 member party had to take into account both sets of stairs, arrow fire from other levels, a couple of flying foes and a largish number of undead. Added to this the party was split initially and would reform in different groups to meet the challengers.
One as a player was when each party member was alone and attacked. some were attacked earlier than others, but we all had to fight without the usual backup one gets in a party. And I used a one shot magical messenger owl to warn someone that ended up being outside the door to the room when he received the message!
__________________ Dross
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Scrag: I saved his life.
Leanna: How so?
Scrag: I stopped hitting him.
Scrag, ½-orc barbarian from Great Worm Tribe, the High Forrest
Also, the trick to terrain is to not overdo it. Terrain is a spice. Too much difficult terrain, and the battle drags. Too much damaging terrain and it's instead a source of frustration, not excitement.
Be wary of only using terrain that the enemies can exploit and that hinders the PCs; that'll quickly frustrate the players if (for instance) the enemy is resistant to the damage type of the damaging terrain, or can ignore the difficult terrain, etc.
Here's one I've been wanting to reproduce from a different system: fighting on different levels of rocks jutting out from the sheer surface of a cliff. In this game, we were on a river, was attacked by a monster, and we went OVER THE WATERFALL, and caught the rocks behind the waterfall, so we battled the thing on narrow ledges while the water raged beside us.
Great ideas in this thread guys! I agree that you don't want to overdo it with challenging terrain, but there are a lot of interesting things that will make your battles memorable without screwing the PCs over too badly.
A bit OT, but I like dthe old PS1 game "Final Fantasy Tactics" for inspiration on cool battlefield layouts.
Linear Mode
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