Non-combat encounters in a dungeon?

[Tobold]

I'm preparing a 4th edition adventure based on P1 King of the Trollhaunt Warrens, but with the warrens much shortened. I simply don't want every session in the dungeon being one combat encounter after the other. So I am looking for suggestions what non-combat encounters work well in a dungeon environment. Right now I can only think of classics like traps or puzzles, and I'm not sure how well those fit into troll warrens, the trolls not being very bright. Theoretically the players could negotiate their way through an encounter, but again that doesn't fit all that well with the trolls.

Any bright alternative ideas?

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Don't just have trolls in there. Perhaps there's far smaller creatures that live in the warrens, that make their living stealing from the trolls, emerging from small tunnels that the trolls can't get into without digging.

These creatures might not be immediately hostile to the PCs. However, killing the trolls means the PCs are removing these little guys' food/money source. Perhaps the trolls have made a "deal" with these guys to inform them of intruders, and the PCs could, with RP and Diplomacy, convince the little guys to break the deal, without informing the trolls, of course. Really flub the check and the little guys might pretend to break the deal, while actually informing the trolls. It gets worse: usually the PCs will kill every troll (every witness) to an encounter, so the trolls can't really learn about the PCs, but the little guys will probably observe battles and learn information about the PCs.

 

[Celebrim]

In my game, Trolls are (largely) evil fairy creatures rather than leathery giants and so have a bit more 'personality'. Recasting the troll lair as denizens of a different sort would also for greater diversity in the inhabitants, their motivations, and their desires. As early as 1e, I had troll bards and sages. This makes for some interesting surprises for players expecting straight forward encounters, as trolls with fey motives may act really in any way that a fairy tale creature might.

a) The Trolls didn't build the lair, but merely adapted it to their own purpose. Parts of the lair remain undisturbed by the Trolls out of fear, superstition, design, laziness, or some combination. For example, a secret door might be unknown to the trolls. An iron vault might not be penetrated, and the fire trap that guards a corridor may have deterred the trolls from investigating it. Thus, the full lair can be both a warren and something else (trap filled tomb, lost temple, etc.)
b) The Trolls have captured slaves and prisoners, which they use as food and labor. These slaves and prisoners can be quite diverse in character, though they would largely share the desire to be free of the trolls so as to not end up as food, they wouldn't necessarily all make good companions or allies.
c) There are scavengers living off the leavings of the trolls - anything from oozes eating trash and dung, to feral sprites (or kobolds, or whatever) living like rats in the walls.
d) The Trolls themselves might not be what they seem to be. The most deformed and base appearing of them might be a polymorphed prince, cursed by some hag to the form of a terrible ogre, or the whole tribe might be a cursed band of knights that scarcely remember their form life.

 

[Balesir]

I also suggest examining the scenario detail. Some of the modifications/additions I used when running it (more-or-less straight) were:

- I turned the wandering around the marshes into a skill challenge; each failure gave a small encounter or skill check or lose a surge, each success gave an opportunity to explore one of the places marked on the map with clues/treasure

- The black dragon has a "back entrance" to the dungeon; in our game the PCs negotiated access here. You could get access by just killing the dragon, but then the trolls may colonise the cave and you may get multiple combats for the same benefit - and I don't give XPs for "no-gain" encounters... As an added possibility, you could let extraordinary success in the search for the Warren give clues to this "back door" - by-passing a number of combat encounters.

The PCs in our game bypassed some combat anyway - it's not actually necessary except on the direct line to the throne chamber.

Another possibility is to expand the negotiation/exploration possibilities with the prisoners/slaves of the trolls; the prisoner room also has a hole in the roof that might possibly be found as an alternative entryway if the "search" challenge goes really well.

In short - there is a lot to that Warren setup; I suggest exploring what is there and riffing off it for alternate approaches/challenges.

Edit to add: other possibilities that spring to mind are secret doors that require a skill challenge to figure out how to activate (and which by-pass inhabited parts of the Warren), and there is a stream network that goes through the Warren - figuring out how to get around using that might be quite a challenge (but allow the by-passing of several combats).

 

[Walter_J]

The party could encounter survivors of a previous expedition or members of another group of adventurers. There could also be another group of adventurers in the area who are working for an evil npc.