Kill the PCs! Kill them! Kill them! Kiiiiiiil Theeeeeeeem!

Jeph · Aug 30, 2002

here I would like people to suggest interesting and new ways for NPCs to use terrain, tactics, etcetera to their advantage. I am soon starting a new campaign that i hope will have almost NO "GM: you meet a big monster. PC: We beat the

out of it with our Magical Weapon Of Baddass" encounters.

Setup: Characters walk through a narrow tunnel. They come upon an alcove in the wall with a few twigs, a trio of largish, leathery eggs, and a 1-foot diameter tunnel in the back that winds out of sight.

As the PCs walk by, a lizard pokes his head out, bights a PC (who is flatfooted

), injecting a venom, then retreats.

If the PCs keep waiting around, facing the hole, with readied actions to squash the lizard....

The wall opposite the one with the nest in it shivers slightly then breakes open to reveal a shiny lizard, which bights one of the PCs, then retreats.

I'm not sure what this lizard should be, probably something with a pretty hefty poison and a burrow spee.

Post your encounters here!

Wicht · Aug 30, 2002

The young green dragon lairs in a pool filled room. That is, there are over two dozen pools of water, each about 5' by 5'. The water is deep and opaque. The dragons technique is to pop its head out of a pool (preferably in an area not reachable by charges), breath its cone of acid and then promptly dissapear back under the water.

All the pools are connected and the "land" is actually just earthen bridges over the water. The dragon can see the PCs torches from under the water but they can not see him swimming below in the depths of the inky water.

Other tactics would include bull rushing the pcs to knock them into the water and then going under with them, grappling to hold them there and breathing acid on them underwater.

Jeph · Aug 30, 2002

Green dragons have acid immunity, right?

well, the pools are opaque because of the thick acidic pollution (3d6 damage). The earthen bridges are just stucco and clay, and can be crumbled with a Strength check DC 15.

PCs all stand on one bridge to shoot at dragon from above. Dragon collapses bridge. Ouch.

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The cave empties out into a steep, dry river bed. The banks are 30 feet high. Three trolls stand up on the banks, each with a pile of 8 400 pound rocks....

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-Jeph

Jack Haggerty · Aug 30, 2002

You know...

It's really just as simple as using what;s in the book.

Grapple someone to give a melee bonus and Sneak Attacks to enemy Rogues. Trip someone to give melee bonuses, and make them waste a MEA standing up. Bull Rush someone into a spiked pit for falling damage. Use Concealment and Cover for ambushes or retreats.

When their Captain attacks the PC champion, have a horde of Goblin Regulars Aid Another for a bonus of up to +16(! if the opponent is completely surrounded, and not counting the flanking bonus) to either Attack or AC. Have a buffed up, raging Barbarian Sunder the weapon of the Party's Figher. Or better yet, have an Elf Monk Disarm him and use his own Flaming Burst Longsword against him. Use a reach weapon to deliver a Coup de Gras from behind a wall of tower shields.

There's plenty of tactics to use in the book, if only people would use them. Too many people get stuck in the Toe-to-toe-slugfest rut.

Although, my personal favorite was describing a cave-dwelling Ochre Jelly as a stagnant pool of brackish yellow water. The party's paladin began stripping down to take a bath...

Jeph · Aug 30, 2002

those are some good ideas, but,

NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!

THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT I DO *NOT* WANT TO DO!

Come on man, be creative! Don't just go for big bonuses to attack/damage/AC in interesting ways! actually *use* the environment, use your GM smarts! God gave you a brain, by becomming a gamer you ultimately decided not to use it, but here's that once in a lifetime chance!

Jack Haggerty · Aug 30, 2002

Jeph said:
those are some good ideas, but,

NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!

THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT I DO *NOT* WANT TO DO!

Come on man, be creative! Don't just go for big bonuses to attack/damage/AC in interesting ways! actually *use* the environment, use your GM smarts! God gave you a brain, by becomming a gamer you ultimately decided not to use it, but here's that once in a lifetime chance!

People need to learn how to use what's there before they can fiddle with fancy stuff.

And try to be a little less insulting. Remember, you're the one asking for suggestions from us.

After all, what's so special about a snake in a hole?

Now... Give a few minutes and I'll think of something.

Jack Haggerty · Aug 30, 2002

Here's an idea...

We'll make a White Dragon lair.

Let's begin with a rather large cavern. Now, let's fill the entire bottom half with water. Next, at the very top of the cavern will be a vertical shaft that burrows up into a smaller cave. Finally, since this is a White Dragon, we make the cave cold enough that a layer of ice has formed over the lake that covers the cavern's floor, and a sheet of ice with massive icicles covers the walls and ceiling.

The upper chamber is where the Dragon sleeps with its treasure horde... More on that later.

The Heroes will enter the lair to see a large icicle ridden cavern with a flat icey floor. The icey floor should be treated as a Grease spell, with a Reflex save of 15. Furthermore, the ice is thin, and heavy weights have a chance of breaking through... For every 5 pounds over 200 pounds on a single 5' square, there is a 5% chance of breaking through the ice. Breaking through the ice results in a 5' wide hole and anyone falling into the water must contend with extreme cold and possible drowning.

The Dragon's tactics will be to wait until any intruders are at the center of the cavern looking up toward the shaft in the ceiling. She will then dive down out of the shaft to hopefully surprise her opponants with a Crush attack. She land so as to crush and grapple as many enemies as possible at the same time. Additionally, she more than heavy enough to break through the ice, dragging any pinned opponents down to bottom of the cavern lake with her to continue the Crush attack. Once they are taken care of, she will break up through the ice from below, possibly sending more intruders into the frigid waters. she will then fly up to the walls and ceiling, where she can use her Icewalking and Breathweapon to beast effect, while staying out of range of any earth-bound melee fighters.

Last, but not least. Any adventurers who survive to claim the Dragon's treasure will have to find a way up through the tunnel iun the center of the ceiling into the Dragon's sleeping cave... Where they will find the horde artistically frozen into a block of ice.

Is that the sort of thing you were looking for?

clockworkjoe · Aug 30, 2002

Play your monsters as though they were your PC.

Xarlen · Aug 30, 2002

That Dragon Lair is *exactly* what I had thought of.

It happens to be what I do with a Great White Wrym, the Smartest of the Whites (And a powerful spellcaster, too).

However, I would also suggest using BIG icicles as ranged touch attack weapons. The dragon could also pull people into the water, and pin them while biting at others. Although, the dragon should also have an excape venue, in the ceiling of it's sleep cave; a way to slither out, and fly off, in case it's Seriously in need. Or, why not have a Big Vat O' Healing potions, up there?

As for the Green dragon, it has Waterbreathing. Not Acid breathing. It would drown in the acid.

Kou-Tao and giant spiderwebs. They have slippery bodies, allowing them to move through without little problem, but people can't come after them.

Following the Dragon method... A green dragon in lake, of size Large or better. It's lair is in a cliff face on the other side of the lake, but the entrance is *under* the water. However, there are many caves riddled in the cliff edge, making it 'look' like cave entries. The PCs will likely cross in a boat. Have the dragon cast Darkness on itself, and attack the boat from beneath. Even a decent attack would cause it to begin sinking. Then, using it's blindsight, come up out of the water enough to breathe on those out of the water, before going after the survivors. Blindsight is awesome.

If need be, grapple with someone, and pull them under the water, for furious rounds o' biting.

Use the above example with the dragon in flight, snatching an armored member of the crew. Grappling in it's mouth, the dragon flies high enough, bites, breathes, then drop the armored character into the water, Far from the boat.

Any ambush with a critter having blindsight, a campsight with a fire, and the Pyrotechnics Spell.

A forest who's fires are continually put out. Thus, a LARGE amount of debris is piled, and piled, and piled. The creature using this tactic should be immune to fire, because when someone comes to apose it... Instant forest fire.

A ghost in a decrepid mine. It uses it's telekinesis powers to do enough damage to weak spots, allowing a cave in (See avalance rules in the DMG).

Lizardfolk druids and their gator animal companions, inside a flooded forest, or a deep swamp, with lots of floating logs. The gators use grapples to pull characters underwater (While flat footed due to lurking gators), while Lizardfolk attack the pinned victim.

Green Slime + 3' tall and wide tunnel.

Creamsteak · Aug 30, 2002

Equip all races that have treasure value and are NPC's with equipment first of all. DM's that don't equip the valuable threasure the PC's want are at a disadvantage.

However, just focusing on terrain...

Some reasonably low level terrain features I've used...

Tables/furniture for cover (total cover for small, 25-50 cover for medium)

Hay bales about 6 feet high. (Balance check DC5 when dry, but DC 10 when wet, and DC 15 when wet and on muddy ground)
Movement get's hindered with the occational (albeit rare) slip onto thier back's leaving them prone.

Ranged weapons in any environment that doesn't can have cover, and provides wizards with no Line of Sights that are any good...

Any enemy with a crossbow that can shoot underwater without any negative modifiers (I forget which races have these, sea elves I think)... Thier bolts are not slowed down in the air either, so they can fire out of a lake, while the player's cannot fire back in.

There's a billion ideas. Are you sure you really are looking for some? I'm sure you can come up with some great ones, I'm just pointing out the 5 or 6 that I've "accidently" discovered.