Dr_Ruminahui
First Post
Neat ideas - on a similar vein, launched capsules of (uplevelled) rot grub or rust monster swarms.
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Exotic Siege Weaponry
- Thread starter Saagael
- Start date
Peraion Graufalke
First Post
Disease-carrying stirge swarms.
Securing the city after the siege will be a mess, though.
Oh oh oh pick me! Pick me! I have an answer sir!
There is a great encounter with a truly overpowered Astral Juggernaut used to break down the walls of a god's city. All the PCs can hope to do is slow it down. I have not read the adventure, but if you look for the last tactical encounter in the module The Glorious Hunt you should see it. It can be found at Living Forgotten Realms
What about electrical sky ships full of troops played as gargantuan monsters, for epic characters only though. Check out the Last Breath of The Dragon Queen, I think it is called, the last adventure in the Scales of War campaign. I think it will be one of the first tactical encounters. It is pretty awesome having PCs single handedly take out entire ships full of enemies before they can reach the castle walls and unload into the city streets.
There is a great encounter with a truly overpowered Astral Juggernaut used to break down the walls of a god's city. All the PCs can hope to do is slow it down. I have not read the adventure, but if you look for the last tactical encounter in the module The Glorious Hunt you should see it. It can be found at Living Forgotten Realms
What about electrical sky ships full of troops played as gargantuan monsters, for epic characters only though. Check out the Last Breath of The Dragon Queen, I think it is called, the last adventure in the Scales of War campaign. I think it will be one of the first tactical encounters. It is pretty awesome having PCs single handedly take out entire ships full of enemies before they can reach the castle walls and unload into the city streets.
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Saagael
First Post
Ooh, that looks good. The idea of this encounter is that the players are leading an army in order to retake a castle that's being held by the BBEG. This conquest will take the players from level 20 to 21. As such, I'm aiming for "mind-blowing" and "piss-your-pants awesome"; probably overreaching, but I'm gonna try!
I might steal the idea of the "Juggernaut" and turn it into a creature so large that its made up of several "creatures" representing its legs, torso, arms, and head.
Unwise said:
I've seen that encounter, and I've already taken some ideas from it. There will be Githyanki airships attacking, but instead of the ship as a monster, it'll be the ship with 20-40 minions on it.
Though with the mention of the Arkhosian Siege Engine monster up in this thread, I'm using that as a single monster that represents 20-30 creatures huddled inside a siege engine.
aco175
Legend
Gee, and all I was picturing was something out of the last Lord of the Rings movie.
I was thinking of a portable portal. I cannot remember what movie I saw this in but the party needed to set out 3 rods in a triangle to do something I cannot recall- great movie huh. I was thinking of a portable gate. A flying monster lands with a pack of threats to clear an area and set this up. heroes come along when they are almost finished and countdown against the closk as they battle to keep it from activating.
It could go to BBEG headquarters and the heroes could sneak in that way for a final fight.
I was thinking of a portable portal. I cannot remember what movie I saw this in but the party needed to set out 3 rods in a triangle to do something I cannot recall- great movie huh. I was thinking of a portable gate. A flying monster lands with a pack of threats to clear an area and set this up. heroes come along when they are almost finished and countdown against the closk as they battle to keep it from activating.
It could go to BBEG headquarters and the heroes could sneak in that way for a final fight.
Just had another idea. You could use a variation of the Collossus of Larn (encounter from Dungeon magazine I think). In that encounter, you have an literally invincible golem that the party can only defeat by completing a skill challenge to depower it.
I would suggest using it to break up combat before people get sick of fighting. For instance:
- They manage to break open the front gates and pour in, this has been a big fight at this stage
- They run into the courtyard, only to meet a staggeringly tall invincible golem slaughtering all their troops and bringing the assault to a halt.
- Their troops pull back, waiting for their leaders to deal with the threat. If it takes too long, they will likely route as the assault has hit a roadblock and the army is being peppered by ranged attacks while it sits around unable to move forward.
- The PCs soon discover it is unkillable (either through trial and error or knowledge checks)
- Looking around, they see a series of magical stones/whatever along the walls of the courtyard and a magic altar (maybe on the roof of the keep?). It takes perception/dungeoneering/arcana to notice these things maybe, make it sort of a skill challenge to work out how to shut down the golem.
- They must fight off the golem, who hits like a tonne of bricks, while they each scatter to try and shut down one of the devices keeping it activated.
- Naturally, each device is guarded by a captain (standard) and a bunch of soldiers (minions).
- It is a skill challenge to turn off the devices, so if they stick together, they will have to weather the golems pounding for longer, but if they split up, some of htem might not be able to face the guards by themselves.
Just make sure to make the golem nasty enough that the tank cannot just lock it down while his friends take their time. I would make it hit so hard that the party actually have to share out the damage a bit or the tank will drop. I would take it very much down to the wire. Often you can get the idea across by having the golem hit for 50 damage on its first hit. After that they will respect it, so it can hit for less or miss a bit after that. I ran something like this with the golem hitting 5th level guys for 4d12 + 8 damage. It really made them pull out the buffs, heals and controller abilities to live through that.
Hmm actually, consider ignoring what I said about raw damage and make it even nastier. The Collossus of Larn gets a turn after every PCs turn. It will be attacking 4-5 times a round. That is a really interesting mechanic. It makes it hard to keep the tank up for long without planning. You can't just rely on the cleric healing him up once he is bloodied, as the monster can easily do his entire HP in a round.
I would suggest using it to break up combat before people get sick of fighting. For instance:
- They manage to break open the front gates and pour in, this has been a big fight at this stage
- They run into the courtyard, only to meet a staggeringly tall invincible golem slaughtering all their troops and bringing the assault to a halt.
- Their troops pull back, waiting for their leaders to deal with the threat. If it takes too long, they will likely route as the assault has hit a roadblock and the army is being peppered by ranged attacks while it sits around unable to move forward.
- The PCs soon discover it is unkillable (either through trial and error or knowledge checks)
- Looking around, they see a series of magical stones/whatever along the walls of the courtyard and a magic altar (maybe on the roof of the keep?). It takes perception/dungeoneering/arcana to notice these things maybe, make it sort of a skill challenge to work out how to shut down the golem.
- They must fight off the golem, who hits like a tonne of bricks, while they each scatter to try and shut down one of the devices keeping it activated.
- Naturally, each device is guarded by a captain (standard) and a bunch of soldiers (minions).
- It is a skill challenge to turn off the devices, so if they stick together, they will have to weather the golems pounding for longer, but if they split up, some of htem might not be able to face the guards by themselves.
Just make sure to make the golem nasty enough that the tank cannot just lock it down while his friends take their time. I would make it hit so hard that the party actually have to share out the damage a bit or the tank will drop. I would take it very much down to the wire. Often you can get the idea across by having the golem hit for 50 damage on its first hit. After that they will respect it, so it can hit for less or miss a bit after that. I ran something like this with the golem hitting 5th level guys for 4d12 + 8 damage. It really made them pull out the buffs, heals and controller abilities to live through that.
Hmm actually, consider ignoring what I said about raw damage and make it even nastier. The Collossus of Larn gets a turn after every PCs turn. It will be attacking 4-5 times a round. That is a really interesting mechanic. It makes it hard to keep the tank up for long without planning. You can't just rely on the cleric healing him up once he is bloodied, as the monster can easily do his entire HP in a round.
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Saagael
First Post
Thar be some good ideas. I like the idea of using it to break up the combat, and to lure players into some other area to destroy the controlling device, meanwhile this juggernaut is slowly making its way to their own army's back line.
Instead of having the golem do a huge amount of direct damage, give it huge cinematic powers that allow it to change the environment and give forced movement along with damage.
If I was a 60 foot tall invincible death machine, what would I rather do: bend over to squish a couple of annoying anklebiters, or collapse a nearby building, sending debris and dust over hundreds of feet, burying an entire company of attackers under rubble and flinging the tiny anklebiters dozens of feet to land dazed amidst the wreckage?
Allow the PCs to dodge its stupidly strong attacks, heroically place themselves in danger to lure it away from their allies, and if they're smart, trick it into laying waste to a good part of the city and finally crushing the tower its control center is housed in. Alternatively, trick the golem into collapsing a building onto itself - it's not dead, but it will take a few hours to extricate itself. Quick, send the heavy infantry forward! We only have a few scant hours to seize the citadel before the brute is back upon us!
If I was a 60 foot tall invincible death machine, what would I rather do: bend over to squish a couple of annoying anklebiters, or collapse a nearby building, sending debris and dust over hundreds of feet, burying an entire company of attackers under rubble and flinging the tiny anklebiters dozens of feet to land dazed amidst the wreckage?
Allow the PCs to dodge its stupidly strong attacks, heroically place themselves in danger to lure it away from their allies, and if they're smart, trick it into laying waste to a good part of the city and finally crushing the tower its control center is housed in. Alternatively, trick the golem into collapsing a building onto itself - it's not dead, but it will take a few hours to extricate itself. Quick, send the heavy infantry forward! We only have a few scant hours to seize the citadel before the brute is back upon us!
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Saagael
First Post
Hm... This is an interesting idea. Would you run this as a skill challenge, or as an extended roleplay style combat? It certainly shows off how important the players are in that the golem can't damage them, but can certainly lay waste to their army.
Warhammer has something along those lines - goblin doom divers - the goblin is on a glider and is catapulted onto an enemy unit and does splat damage to it. Of course, the goblin dies upon impact (if I recall). However, if the goblin was also carrying alchemist's fire, it could be an effective siege weapon.
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