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D&D 4E Best 4E Tactical Encounters

renau1g

First Post
Oh, I just wanted to say I really liked the trap effects from the DM Rewards RPGA Tomb of Horror re-make. Very deadly, but I really liked them.
 

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Week 11 of D&D Encounters Dark Sun had a really brilliant encounter.

The party is captured by halflings, gets out alive, but need to get their stuff. Without any equipment or gear, they have to get into a small outpost guarded by four halflings to get their stuff. If the halflings sound an alarm three more show up every other round until the end of the encounter. The outpost has a nice setup so there are lots of options to deal with the halflings.

Talk to your FLGS organizer or PM me for details.
 

pemerton

Legend
I like some of the encounter areas in H2 Thunderspire Labyrinth. I've GMed the Chamber of Eyes and the Well of Demons. Both have good locations with lots of circular paths and interesting terrain.

The actual encounters, as written, can sometimes benefit from a bit of work. For example, I ran the encounters in the Chamber of Eyes as one big encounter rather than in sequence. Similarly for the gnolls in the Well of Demons. If you run the encounters as written then you won't get the full benefit of the interesting maps.
 

Edwin_Su

First Post
not a published encouter but one i realy enjoyed, made by my brother.

combat with an aspect of tiamat as main enemy

there where 4 small portals in the room trough wich small flying creatures came one each round ( can't remember their name)

they had a power that places down an area that dazed people starting their turn in the area.

they would come in trough one portal and place down the area, the DM ruled that the area would disapear if the creature who made it was killed
but they would try and exit trough one of the other portals before they could be killed leaving the area behind

they where easy enough to kill as they where onlu lvl3 mobs and we where lvl16

but if we woulden''t kill them the areas would making figting the aspect inpassible.
 

Klaus

First Post
I like some of the encounter areas in H2 Thunderspire Labyrinth. I've GMed the Chamber of Eyes and the Well of Demons. Both have good locations with lots of circular paths and interesting terrain.

The actual encounters, as written, can sometimes benefit from a bit of work. For example, I ran the encounters in the Chamber of Eyes as one big encounter rather than in sequence. Similarly for the gnolls in the Well of Demons. If you run the encounters as written then you won't get the full benefit of the interesting maps.
I'll second the Chamber of Eyes.

The best 4e encounters are the ones that follow the late 3.5/early 4e advice of making encounter areas larger, and composed of more than one room.
 


acidix

First Post
In an RPGA module, there was a fight with some kind of cold-fire beast. It had a breath attack that hit bunched up characters. The kicker was that the room, a large one, was sectioned into 4 quadrants, and at initiative 0, 3 of the 4 quadrants would burst into cold-flame. Every turn the "safe" quadrant would move around the room counter-clockwise.

There were 4 switches on a central altar in the room, which ended up turning off the flames, but the 4 switches were behind locked panels, and in the four corners of the room were 4 statues which contained a key, so you had to grab the four keys, and ensure that you unlocked the correct side with each key. While all of this is happening, you have an ice wurm beating the crap out of you. So you can try to kill it but you have to ensure that every turn you dont end up in an unsafe zone or you'd take a bunch of damage.

That fight kept everyone moving and shooting, while the defenders tried to keep the wurm in the center of the room to avoid having to move too much and provoke attacks of opportunity. It was a really fun fight, and I've thought of running my own encounter with perhaps lines on the floor that ignited in a pattern or something of the like.
 


Klaus

First Post
Yeah... Whatever happened to that bit of wisdom? Why didn't it get any followup?
I dunno.

When I ran Keep On The Shadowfell, I treated the entire goblin gang on the Keep's first level as a single encounter composed of the circular corridor and the three adjoining rooms. The players enjoyed a lot.
 

Riastlin

First Post
Radiant Vessel of Thessk as previously mentioned is probably my favorite.

The Temple Between (part of the Scales of War adventure path) also has an interesting encounter in that it is a three way fight. Two sides are essentially already fighting each other when the PCs walk in. It provides great opportunities for a mini SC or just plain roleplay in getting the two sides to keep fighting while perhaps allying with one over the other.

Also part of the SOW is Siege of Bordrin's Watch which has an encounter wherein the PCs are descending a narrow stone staircase in a chasm, in the dark, with enemies firing at them with powers that can push the PCs. The final battle in that one is also pretty well designed and gives very interesting effects -- though to really make use of it the adventure as a whole has to be designed to support it. Can't say too much more without spoiling though. :p
 

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