Lord Xtheth
First Post
Brilliant! I love this scenario!
Creative combat objectives (other than "kill 'em all")
Putting the format aside, what about some of these?
1.) Ride 'em, Cowboy: Players must climb atop or bridle a huge solo enemy (or perhaps shave off a piece of its eye horns). The creature is too rare, valuable, or immortal to kill, so the party has to use distraction, non-lethal damage, or...something else, to get a party member up top. (I did this in a 3e campaign with a rampaging Apparatus of Kwalish).
2.) Guessing Game: The monsters look like you and your friends, as if you were mixed up in their Mirror Image spell. On any given turn, it's hard to tell who is your ally and who is the monster. As a minor action, the foes can mix themselves up again, meaning that whatever clues you used to tell them from your allies has to be done again.
3.) Fading Fast: Each round, some of the party's power is lost, perhaps as part of some draining spell. Each round the PCs age, lose levels, or lose memories. The enemy must be defeated quickly, but every round it gets harder.
4.) There can be only One: Each round, any player that fails to meet a certain condition is instantly removed from play (Ex. Whoever caused the least damage, failed to hit their target, didn't fight with honor, forgot to say "please")
Eh. I'm just throwin' stuff out there.
1.) Ride 'em, Cowboy: Players must climb atop or bridle a huge solo enemy (or perhaps shave off a piece of its eye horns). The creature is too rare, valuable, or immortal to kill, so the party has to use distraction, non-lethal damage, or...something else, to get a party member up top. (I did this in a 3e campaign with a rampaging Apparatus of Kwalish).
2.) Guessing Game: The monsters look like you and your friends, as if you were mixed up in their Mirror Image spell. On any given turn, it's hard to tell who is your ally and who is the monster. As a minor action, the foes can mix themselves up again, meaning that whatever clues you used to tell them from your allies has to be done again.
3.) Fading Fast: Each round, some of the party's power is lost, perhaps as part of some draining spell. Each round the PCs age, lose levels, or lose memories. The enemy must be defeated quickly, but every round it gets harder.
4.) There can be only One: Each round, any player that fails to meet a certain condition is instantly removed from play (Ex. Whoever caused the least damage, failed to hit their target, didn't fight with honor, forgot to say "please")
Eh. I'm just throwin' stuff out there.
Halivar
First Post
Scenario: Assassination
Objective: The opposite of VIP Escort. In this scenario, the enemy is trying to protect the party's target, and get him to a safe area. The party's job is to stop him from getting there. This can be a murderous crime lord moving from one safe house to another, a deposed tyrant fleeing to escape to his waiting army, or a courier rushing to give the uber-archvillain the pass-phrase to the Book of Vile Darkness.
Setup: The enemy has dispatched three parties. One has the real VIP, and the others are escorting a minion look-alike. The VIP has artillery monster stats (but no attacks). Like in the VIP Escort scenario, the VIP will cower when attacked. Each VIP is surrounded by 4 non-minions. In addition, there are at least 10 minion patrolling the board.
In Play: Slain minions are replaced at the end of the enemies' turn at the edge of the mat. As in the VIP Escort scenario, the VIP is hindered and can only make a standard action each round, and moves 5 squares.
Ancillary Skills: Insight and Perception are the key skills here for noticing doppelgangers. A hard check will spot the deception before engagement.
Objective: The opposite of VIP Escort. In this scenario, the enemy is trying to protect the party's target, and get him to a safe area. The party's job is to stop him from getting there. This can be a murderous crime lord moving from one safe house to another, a deposed tyrant fleeing to escape to his waiting army, or a courier rushing to give the uber-archvillain the pass-phrase to the Book of Vile Darkness.
Setup: The enemy has dispatched three parties. One has the real VIP, and the others are escorting a minion look-alike. The VIP has artillery monster stats (but no attacks). Like in the VIP Escort scenario, the VIP will cower when attacked. Each VIP is surrounded by 4 non-minions. In addition, there are at least 10 minion patrolling the board.
In Play: Slain minions are replaced at the end of the enemies' turn at the edge of the mat. As in the VIP Escort scenario, the VIP is hindered and can only make a standard action each round, and moves 5 squares.
Ancillary Skills: Insight and Perception are the key skills here for noticing doppelgangers. A hard check will spot the deception before engagement.
Halivar
First Post
Sorry for the bump on the long-dead thread. DM friend wanted to view it.
Last week I finally got to run a modified "Last Stand" scenario with some pretty epic changes. I had 10 rounds of minions (in sets of 20) assaulting the PC's and 15 minions helping them defend. In this scenario, the "leader" was an elite decoy to draw fire and give minions precious time unhampered to assault the fortress walls.. The result was rather fun. On the 10th round (whereupon the king's cavalry came to the rescue), the PC's were holding off a horde of zombies at the doors in the back of the fortress leading to the women and children in a pretty pants-wetting moment. The total kill-score as 184 dead minions for the PC's.
I'm inclined to up the number of enemy minions for most of the scenarios described in this thread. I'll try them out and post results later.
Last week I finally got to run a modified "Last Stand" scenario with some pretty epic changes. I had 10 rounds of minions (in sets of 20) assaulting the PC's and 15 minions helping them defend. In this scenario, the "leader" was an elite decoy to draw fire and give minions precious time unhampered to assault the fortress walls.. The result was rather fun. On the 10th round (whereupon the king's cavalry came to the rescue), the PC's were holding off a horde of zombies at the doors in the back of the fortress leading to the women and children in a pretty pants-wetting moment. The total kill-score as 184 dead minions for the PC's.
I'm inclined to up the number of enemy minions for most of the scenarios described in this thread. I'll try them out and post results later.
shilsen
Adventurer
I'm glad you bumped it, since I hadn't seen it before. And now I've subscribed to it. Very nice work, Halivar
How about "Extraction"? The objective being "Take Target Y alive". Either Y being an enemy in the middle of other enemies, or Y being a hostage being held by captives.
The problem with Y being an enemy among enemies might result in "Kill them all - just use subduing technique upon 0 HP on Y" instead of trying to grab and get out ASAP.
As a hostage, Y is restrained (making this different from VIP). The problem with Y being a hostage requires you to propose an appropriate threat to Y. Meaning that enemies in the area can do damage to Y, enough to make it dangerous to engage in a battle in the middle of the hostage being right there.
Example: Gremlins are dismantling the device holding your defenses, and when you approach, they scamper. Quick, three of them have necessary parts! Which ones?
The problem with Y being an enemy among enemies might result in "Kill them all - just use subduing technique upon 0 HP on Y" instead of trying to grab and get out ASAP.
As a hostage, Y is restrained (making this different from VIP). The problem with Y being a hostage requires you to propose an appropriate threat to Y. Meaning that enemies in the area can do damage to Y, enough to make it dangerous to engage in a battle in the middle of the hostage being right there.
Another option would be "Frisk"; you have X number of minions or enemies, but only Y are your target. Therefore, part of the challenge is determining which one you are targeting. Thus, it would require a perception or insight skill (or at worst, luck) to get the right ones before they run away.
Example: Gremlins are dismantling the device holding your defenses, and when you approach, they scamper. Quick, three of them have necessary parts! Which ones?
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Any suggestions how to increase the difficulty of these situations? For instance, I'm reading through these, and I know from experience that something (either by design, or the way you're running it/your PCs react), it becomes a cakewalk.
What should you do in the event that it becomes a cake walk?
Alternatively, what do you do if it becomes impossible for the players, for whatever reason? (Dice, bad planning, etc)?
What should you do in the event that it becomes a cake walk?
Alternatively, what do you do if it becomes impossible for the players, for whatever reason? (Dice, bad planning, etc)?
Halivar
First Post
Because most of these scenarios rely on large numbers of monsters, I simply added more monsters in secondary waves for the scenario I ran.
I always leave myself an out (in ANY combat) whereby I can either raise or lower the difficulty (either side, for instance, can get reinforcements, or whatever uber-ability the BBEG is using becomes a limited-use resource, elite monsters become non-elite on-the-fly, etc.).
FireLance
Legend
Yes, very interesting ideas!
My contribution may be considered a variant or combination of Capture the Flag and Breakout:
Scenario: Snatch and Run
Objective: The PCs must obtain possession of an object and make their way to an exit. Both the object and the exit are guarded by enemies.
Setup: The PCs start the encounter at an entrance on one edge of the mat, with the object and the exit at the far corners to the right and left of them. Depending on the setting, there may be obstacles (buildings, trees, rocks) and rough terrain. Three groups of monster (including traps and hazards) guard the object, the exit and the entrance (directly in front of the party). Each group should be about 2/3 of a standard encounter, which means the party is initially facing an encounter about twice as tough as normal.
In Play: Reinforcements arrive from the entrance, either a set amount per round, or as monsters are defeated.
Ancillary Skill Checks: The PCs may have to make Athletics or Acrobatics checks to get to the object or the exit, Perception and Thievery checks to notice and disable traps, Arcana, Nature or Dungeoneering checks to notice magical or natural hazards, etc. As a variant, the PCs may also need to find the object before they can obtain it, and may need to make Perception checks to find a specific amulet in a pile of gold coins, or Arcana checks to determine which of the identical amulets they have found is the magical one.
My contribution may be considered a variant or combination of Capture the Flag and Breakout:
Scenario: Snatch and Run
Objective: The PCs must obtain possession of an object and make their way to an exit. Both the object and the exit are guarded by enemies.
Setup: The PCs start the encounter at an entrance on one edge of the mat, with the object and the exit at the far corners to the right and left of them. Depending on the setting, there may be obstacles (buildings, trees, rocks) and rough terrain. Three groups of monster (including traps and hazards) guard the object, the exit and the entrance (directly in front of the party). Each group should be about 2/3 of a standard encounter, which means the party is initially facing an encounter about twice as tough as normal.
In Play: Reinforcements arrive from the entrance, either a set amount per round, or as monsters are defeated.
Ancillary Skill Checks: The PCs may have to make Athletics or Acrobatics checks to get to the object or the exit, Perception and Thievery checks to notice and disable traps, Arcana, Nature or Dungeoneering checks to notice magical or natural hazards, etc. As a variant, the PCs may also need to find the object before they can obtain it, and may need to make Perception checks to find a specific amulet in a pile of gold coins, or Arcana checks to determine which of the identical amulets they have found is the magical one.
My main concern being the Last Stand situation, where for some reason, the movement is just too small.
Also there is the concern that, well, they're minions. They're not that threatening. The PCs might dismiss them as non-threatening, until more than 3 are at the PCs' area.
Otherwise, I like what I see.
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