How do you challenge a Druid in a forest? Need help

[Kage Tenjin]

My PC's just jumped in a very different direction then what I had intended, leaving me with no plans on what to do. The Party just jumped off of their ship because the island that they are trying to get to was blockaded, and they are going to bypass the blockade by using a druidic portal that lies at the center of the forest. The Party's problem? This forest is filled with Dark Elves, and at its center is their god, a giant spider. The general make-up of the forest is ancient growth, with Oak being the softest wood found in the forest, while there exists Ironwood in decent quantities.

I need help challenging my party along their path to the center of the forest, which is difficult because they have a druid. I'd like to throw some challenges that are more tailored to the druid taking the lead at this point.

The Make-up of the Party (All Level 8):
Evoker
Barbarian
Rogue/Sorcerer
Druid

Combat is this group's best aspect, they can rip thru a difficult fight, so I wanted to try and challenge them on another level. Any Ideas anyone can toss my way would be appreciated.

 

[Drakmar]

throw things at them that the Druid won't let them just kill. Like an angry mother bear or something.

Have something ecological come to the Druid's attention that needs to be dealt with now.

 

[phreakphit]

Very good idea, distract the druid with saving nature. Simple riddles are also a good way to challenge a group that knows how to fight. Or other things that require intellect to solve. Druids versus druids always make for an interesting fight. Especially with animal companions and wild shape. Dark elves on an island is an interesting concept, I think I once trapped my pcs on an island, and then brought in baddies that were basically mirror images of the pcs stats wise. And perhaps a little better for extra challenge. But honestly, the post above has a great idea... give the group a choice, either fight the baddies, but in the process kill nature/animals or risk doing things the druids way (who has hopefully protested against first choice) which may involve going about doing things in a more dangerous fashion.

 

[Kage Tenjin]

throw things at them that the Druid won't let them just kill. Like an angry mother bear or something.

Have something ecological come to the Druid's attention that needs to be dealt with now.

That might work, bu I'm not sure. He's not really playing a very tree-hugging druid, when I threw a group of predators at the party, he summoned an Emu for the raptors to devour. The dangling plot-hook is the PC's need to collect as many of the McGuffins of the dragons as they can before the villians do, thus saving the world, so I need something more immediate so it can't be written off to "the great good."

Oh, and there will be counter-Druids aplenty, Dark Elves with druid levels, spider companions and web traps. I just wanted to have a couple of non-elven threats before the PC's start playing exterminator with the spiders.

 

[Rudar Dimble]

You're PC's druid is probably the only character with a desent amount of ranks in survival. Make some use of that. Throw in some weird environmental things, which the druid can see as unnatural; he can 'read' some dangers in a bird's behaviour or something.

 

[cincinnati reds]

Throw extremely inclement weather at them, complete with a windy thunderstorm - and lightning bolts that set the forest ablaze.

 

[Gentlegamer]

I'm thinking some persistant undead would be troublesome for any party without a regular cleric.

 

[HAL]

ONly you can prevent forest fires

 

[phreakphit]

That might work, bu I'm not sure. He's not really playing a very tree-hugging druid, when I threw a group of predators at the party, he summoned an Emu for the raptors to devour. The dangling plot-hook is the PC's need to collect as many of the McGuffins of the dragons as they can before the villians do, thus saving the world, so I need something more immediate so it can't be written off to "the great good."

Oh, and there will be counter-Druids aplenty, Dark Elves with druid levels, spider companions and web traps. I just wanted to have a couple of non-elven threats before the PC's start playing exterminator with the spiders.

Course the plot twist that is always fun is, on this one occasion stopping the bad guys was the worst thing the hero's could do. What the evil baddies were doing was going to save the world (and more specifically themselves). Then the heroes need to figure out how to save the world now that they have doomed it.

A druid who isn't a tree hugger? Is that a true sentence? That's like a cleric who isn't religious isn't it?

Throw in one large undead creature who's normal CR is actually meant for a group of level 12 characters. Now normally, such a CR creature would kill a level 8 party, but the undead limits what the creature can do (only move so much for instance) so it makes it a tough battle, yet still keeps them on their toes. Helps if undead creature is of large size (has ten foot reach)

 

[Kage Tenjin]

Course the plot twist that is always fun is, on this one occasion stopping the bad guys was the worst thing the hero's could do. What the evil baddies were doing was going to save the world (and more specifically themselves). Then the heroes need to figure out how to save the world now that they have doomed it.

Actually, that's pretty close to what's going on. The world is pretty much doomed in either regard, but PC's have chosen to "save" the world by reseting progress by about 3000 years.

A druid who isn't a tree hugger? Is that a true sentence? That's like a cleric who isn't religious isn't it?

Not exactly. I mean, he venerates nature and the balance, but is the type that will cut down a tree to save the forest.

Throw in one large undead creature who's normal CR is actually meant for a group of level 12 characters. Now normally, such a CR creature would kill a level 8 party, but the undead limits what the creature can do (only move so much for instance) so it makes it a tough battle, yet still keeps them on their toes. Helps if undead creature is of large size (has ten foot reach)

If any of my players actually read this, they's probably laugh. I have no problems challenging them in combat, in fact there have been several times where they managed to pull off a difficult victory. The undead seems to be a popular suggestion, hard to kill and slow. I think it might work if I make it the consequense of the Spider-God's posion, it turns you into a nasty undead beasty.