Two Dozen Nasty DM Tricks
Are your players too comfortable? Do they run pell mell into battle, wander confidently through dungeon corridors or loot with abandon? Do they leave town without a 10' pole or iron spikes? Are they certain that whatever they might encounter will be little more than a minor diversion along their path to Epic levels, never truly fearing for their characters lives? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then it's time to face facts: you're a soft DM, a push over behind the screen. Buit don't despair! It's not too late for you to flex your DMing muscles and remind them that it isn't paranoia if you really are out to get them. To help you find your inner RBDM, I've compiled the following list of Nasty DM Tricks you can -- and should! -- spring on them. And when you've worked through this list, start your own and share it with other DMs, so that they too can free themselves from the shackles of wussification.
1. Vials clearly marked as potions of healing filled instead with one of the following: poison, acid or "cause wounds" (this last one is particularly nasty, as a detect magic spell will not reveal the trick).
2. A magical scabbard filled with a powder extracted from rust monsters.
3. A room filled with corpses and covered by an anti-magic zone. When the door on the other side is opened (revealing a wall) a block falls in front of the entrance and the anti-magic zone is removed, reanimating the zombies.
4. Smear contact poison on the mechanism by which a trap would be disarmed. To add insult to injury, make the trap itself harmless.
5. Two words: bridge mimic.
6. The PCs find a bag of holding; unbeknownst to them, there are already 2 rust monsters placed in the bag.
7. A chromatic dragon uses "alter self" to appear as a metallic dragon with the same breath type.
8. An orc witch doctor uses "reduce" on two hill giants, making them appear as orcs, and ends the spell after the PCs have engaged the apparently minor adversaries.
9. A necklace of strangulation is placed by the dungeon inhabitants on a corpse found near a known or obvious trap.
10. Zombies stuffed full of scorpions or spiders so that once they are cleaved open, the swarms attack.
11. A trap covers the PCs in combustible liquid, then looses a cold based creature.
12. A stuck door that is made of balsam wood or an equally weak material, with a pit trap directly behind it.
13. Electrified portcullis.
14. A peep hole into a monster's lair, a treasure vault or similarly inviting location. A basilisk has been secured on the other side.
15. A trap wounds the target, causing bleeding, and then dumps to character into a shark infested pool, tank or pit.
16. In a room where spiked walls start to close in on the PCs there is a trapdoor in the ceiling. The trapdoor is fitted with a scythe blade trap, beheading those who pass through.
17. One trigger casts "transmute rock to mud" on the ceiling, burying the characters. Another trigger one more step into the room casts "transmute mud to rock".
18. Kobolds, goblins or other small nasty humanoids build the access tunnel to their lair/hoard so bigger folk have to crawl through, then add a second tunnel directly above with spear holes.
19. Four mimics in the shape of pillars hold up the ceiling; if they are killed the ceiling collapses.
20. A roper is located behind a spike grate, able to target the characters and drag them into the spikes but not accessible to melee.
21. Illusions create images of menacing, huge webs on the ceiling and obscure a pit trap in the floor.
22. Things to pit in pit traps: spikes, rust monsters, cockatrices, black pudding, water, diseased rats.
23. Handholds or a ladder in a deep pit trap designed to break/release just out of reach from the top.
24. Kobolds or goblins pour injury vector poison on the ground and then let loose a swarm of rats at the party. Running through the poison coats the rats' claws with venom without poisoning the rats.
Are your players too comfortable? Do they run pell mell into battle, wander confidently through dungeon corridors or loot with abandon? Do they leave town without a 10' pole or iron spikes? Are they certain that whatever they might encounter will be little more than a minor diversion along their path to Epic levels, never truly fearing for their characters lives? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then it's time to face facts: you're a soft DM, a push over behind the screen. Buit don't despair! It's not too late for you to flex your DMing muscles and remind them that it isn't paranoia if you really are out to get them. To help you find your inner RBDM, I've compiled the following list of Nasty DM Tricks you can -- and should! -- spring on them. And when you've worked through this list, start your own and share it with other DMs, so that they too can free themselves from the shackles of wussification.
1. Vials clearly marked as potions of healing filled instead with one of the following: poison, acid or "cause wounds" (this last one is particularly nasty, as a detect magic spell will not reveal the trick).
2. A magical scabbard filled with a powder extracted from rust monsters.
3. A room filled with corpses and covered by an anti-magic zone. When the door on the other side is opened (revealing a wall) a block falls in front of the entrance and the anti-magic zone is removed, reanimating the zombies.
4. Smear contact poison on the mechanism by which a trap would be disarmed. To add insult to injury, make the trap itself harmless.
5. Two words: bridge mimic.
6. The PCs find a bag of holding; unbeknownst to them, there are already 2 rust monsters placed in the bag.
7. A chromatic dragon uses "alter self" to appear as a metallic dragon with the same breath type.
8. An orc witch doctor uses "reduce" on two hill giants, making them appear as orcs, and ends the spell after the PCs have engaged the apparently minor adversaries.
9. A necklace of strangulation is placed by the dungeon inhabitants on a corpse found near a known or obvious trap.
10. Zombies stuffed full of scorpions or spiders so that once they are cleaved open, the swarms attack.
11. A trap covers the PCs in combustible liquid, then looses a cold based creature.
12. A stuck door that is made of balsam wood or an equally weak material, with a pit trap directly behind it.
13. Electrified portcullis.
14. A peep hole into a monster's lair, a treasure vault or similarly inviting location. A basilisk has been secured on the other side.
15. A trap wounds the target, causing bleeding, and then dumps to character into a shark infested pool, tank or pit.
16. In a room where spiked walls start to close in on the PCs there is a trapdoor in the ceiling. The trapdoor is fitted with a scythe blade trap, beheading those who pass through.
17. One trigger casts "transmute rock to mud" on the ceiling, burying the characters. Another trigger one more step into the room casts "transmute mud to rock".
18. Kobolds, goblins or other small nasty humanoids build the access tunnel to their lair/hoard so bigger folk have to crawl through, then add a second tunnel directly above with spear holes.
19. Four mimics in the shape of pillars hold up the ceiling; if they are killed the ceiling collapses.
20. A roper is located behind a spike grate, able to target the characters and drag them into the spikes but not accessible to melee.
21. Illusions create images of menacing, huge webs on the ceiling and obscure a pit trap in the floor.
22. Things to pit in pit traps: spikes, rust monsters, cockatrices, black pudding, water, diseased rats.
23. Handholds or a ladder in a deep pit trap designed to break/release just out of reach from the top.
24. Kobolds or goblins pour injury vector poison on the ground and then let loose a swarm of rats at the party. Running through the poison coats the rats' claws with venom without poisoning the rats.
. Alchemy or similar check will tell of the issue with the trap.
