Favorite dirty tactics?

[Pat Davis]

Looking for fun ideas to bring to the table. Notably pocket sand, caltrops, bolas, etc.
Bringing flour to reveal invisible, or fill the air in a small room, throw a torch.
Pocket Sand/ crushed glass?
Makeshift Alchemist fire- Fuse, bag, lard/fat and tightly packed flour or corn dust.
Tripwires with fish hooks
Illusioning a door to be closed when its open so people stumble through or make it look open and they smash their faces?
Hunter snare covered in small lengths of wire/hooks to make it really difficult to undo.


Any game works.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Have you been rummaging around in my mind?

From the GM side of things, I make my foes that are native to environments that are more 3D than merely standing on the surface of a world- IOW, aerial, aquatic, arboreal, the void of space, etc.- USE all 3 dimensions to attack.

So, for instance, after a few strafing runs out of the surrounding clouds,” I had a huge ancient blue dragon attack a skyfaring ship from below. First they felt a massive jolt (save or be knocked prone) as its claws latched onto the hull. Since it was physically longer than the ship, it could use its tail to sweep the deck from the stern, and its head could snake up over the bow (center, left or right) to bite or breath lightning. On occasion, he’d just claw at the hull a bit. So that I wouldn’t tip my plans to the players, I randomized it’s attack pattern.

And of course, with the bulk of its body shielded by the ship itself, it made for a hard target.

The party archmage was flight capable and did what he could, but was somewhat hampered by the fact that he had few attack spells that would damage the dragon significantly without also risking damage to the ship itself.
.

 

[Eltab]

- I've mashed a candle on an arrow, lit it, shot the arrow, and asked the DM if that would count as Fire damage. (He was generous.)
- We were fleeing a powerful foe and found his trapped and summoned demon. We asked it, "If we let you out, will you attack the next thing that comes through that door?" In came BBEG chasing us.
- Mage Hand plus a rope equals a way to climb up on top of something. (Have the Hand tie the rope in a knot around a tree / crenallation / whatever, something that can hold up your weight.)
- Shelf full of books (which we wanted to destroy anyways). Sweep the books all over the floor and toss a match. Run the other way. Let the villain decide if he wants to save his research or chase you.
- You know your caravan is being trailed by two separate groups (bandit and monster). Lead the two into each others' path. Pick off bandits who try to flee. Finish off the weakened monster.
- Look through the Equipment chapters in Complete Adventurer and Complete Scoundrel.
- Periscope to look around corners without sticking your head out; plan assault / ambush.
- Give enemy one of a pair of Sending Stones; claim your patron has the other one and they can listen in on his plans. Actually you have the other one and can listen in on them.
- Dust of Dehydration into a flooding room gives you the world's biggest sponge.
- Fill a 10-foot pit trap with Cool Whip. Your character suffocated / drowned in whipped cream topping! (Maybe Snorlax could eat his way out; you can't.)
- Grimtooth Trap: pit trap fills with water and lid moves over top. At 9-foot-deep mark, the character can read the message on the underneath of the lid: "The next trap will be fatal. You have been warned." Reading the message causes the water to drain out and the lid to swivel aside.
- Grimtooth Trap Mk 2: not-very-accurate arrow trap at end of long hall goes off when it detects light. It launches a telephone pole, not an arrow, with a heavy 'WHOOMP" sound. Impressive as all get-out, even if the slow-moving pole misses everybody.
- "Click plate" - doesn't trigger a trap ... this time.
- Use common rope as obvious "trip wire". A few steps farther along, use real hard-to-see wire as tripwire. "No worries, we cleared the trap in this room."
- 10-foot-pole is an impromptu lance with a LOT of reach (but only one use).