100 Simple flavorful battlefield effects
- Thread starter Morrus
- Start date
blargney the second
blargney the minute's son
Magnetic ground: wearers of heavy armor increase the armor check penalty by 2 and the movement penalty is also increased by 1.
blargney the second
blargney the minute's son
Just re-read the OP, and remembered that these are supposed to be benefits for PCs, not penalties. With that in mind, I give you...
Magnetic ceiling: wearers of heavy armor decrease the armor check penalty by 2 and the movement penalty is also decreased by 1.
Magnetic ceiling: wearers of heavy armor decrease the armor check penalty by 2 and the movement penalty is also decreased by 1.
Hussar
Legend
It's cherry blossom season here currently. It would be terribly anime, but, falling cherry blossoms to obscure sight lines would make a cool visual.
Hrm, since this is supposed to help the PC's in some way...
Description: The site of the battle is a nexus of violence. Time after time forces great and small have contested this ground. Echoing the shouts of the combatants are ghostly sounds of prior battles - faint shouts and clashes of weapons that are out of sync with events. Leaders and generals call their armies to arms.
Effect: Spending an action point to gain an extra attack grants a +2 circumstance bonus to attack as a ghostly general orders you to strike now!
A disembodied intelligence, or semi-conscious magical force, permeates this area. Any power that requires an action to Sustain is automatically sustained unless the user chooses to stop it.
Miners break through the wall and stare dumbfounded at the battle. They don't interact, but once it's over they offer a refreshing drink that adds +4 HP to healing surges used post-battle (equivalent to a bard's Restful Song). The miners also offer a quicker way to the surface if the PCs agree to clean the rest of (where ever they are).
This battlefield has a steep hill which is a sacred site where many conflicts have been solved with a "King of the Mountain" competition. All forced movement is +1 square. Any creature standing on the slope has a +2 to bullrushes, but if hit by any attack, must succeed in a saving throw or be pushed down the hill 2 squares. Any creature on the single square at the top may make a saving throw to avoid being affected by forced movement.
Edit: On second thought, that last one isn't really an effect, more of a terrain feature, but I can't think of a better place to put it.
Miners break through the wall and stare dumbfounded at the battle. They don't interact, but once it's over they offer a refreshing drink that adds +4 HP to healing surges used post-battle (equivalent to a bard's Restful Song). The miners also offer a quicker way to the surface if the PCs agree to clean the rest of (where ever they are).
This battlefield has a steep hill which is a sacred site where many conflicts have been solved with a "King of the Mountain" competition. All forced movement is +1 square. Any creature standing on the slope has a +2 to bullrushes, but if hit by any attack, must succeed in a saving throw or be pushed down the hill 2 squares. Any creature on the single square at the top may make a saving throw to avoid being affected by forced movement.
Edit: On second thought, that last one isn't really an effect, more of a terrain feature, but I can't think of a better place to put it.
Nifft
Penguin Herder
There's a band nearby playing ragtime. If there's clearly NOT such a band, one immediately forms by supernatural means: perhaps a discrete angelic choir, perhaps a diabolic fiddle and fife, perhaps a spectral sextet sequestered within a great ghostly gazebo. On the fourth round of combat and thereafter, the band's music has some kind of magical effect. At the start of every round after the third, roll on the following table to determine the music's effect. Each effect lasts for one round only, and each effect can only occur once. If you roll an "expended" effect, the music grants no magical bonuses for that round.
1 - Drum Solo: +2 to Athletics checks and melee damage rolls.
2 - Funky Bassline: Shift +2 squares when Shifting.
3 - Ad-Lib Guitar Riff: +2 to Opportunity Attacks and Stealth checks.
4 - Trombone Attack: +2 squares to any Push, Pull or Slide effect.
5 - Ticklish Ivory: +2 squares when walking or running, and +4 to escape a grab.
6 - Heavy Metal Power Violin: +2 to saving throws and ranged damage rolls.
7 - "Hello my Dolly!" / Dancing Frogs: all combatants may immediately roll one free saving throw.
8 - Crescendo: +5 to damage rolls, +5 to healing surge value, and the music ends (no more magical effects).
Cheers, -- N
1 - Drum Solo: +2 to Athletics checks and melee damage rolls.
2 - Funky Bassline: Shift +2 squares when Shifting.
3 - Ad-Lib Guitar Riff: +2 to Opportunity Attacks and Stealth checks.
4 - Trombone Attack: +2 squares to any Push, Pull or Slide effect.
5 - Ticklish Ivory: +2 squares when walking or running, and +4 to escape a grab.
6 - Heavy Metal Power Violin: +2 to saving throws and ranged damage rolls.
7 - "Hello my Dolly!" / Dancing Frogs: all combatants may immediately roll one free saving throw.
8 - Crescendo: +5 to damage rolls, +5 to healing surge value, and the music ends (no more magical effects).
Cheers, -- N
Iron Sky
Procedurally Generated
Here's one I used last night:
57 or whatever we're at) The PCs are on a giant slab of ice/rock that breaks off and begins sliding down a mountain side/glacier. It tilts from side to side, forward and back as it goes down the mountain. Creatures must make Acrobatics or Athletics checks at the starts of their turns or fall prone. At the end of each creature's turn, they slide 1 or 2 squares towards which-ever edge the slab is currently leaning towards.
Note: In my game, everyone was instead inside a giant treaded vehicle (imagine a fantasy semi-steampunk Jawa sand crawler) traveling down a mountain road. Two of the characters were inside being transported to a Hegemony (evil empire) base and were busted out of their cells by a Resistance agent just as the other two characters assaulted the top of the crawler by airship. The agent's sabotage destroyed the breaks, sending the vehicle careening down the road as the PCs fought their way through the Hegemony troopers and elite Dragoons to escape (by leaping back onto the airship as the crawler careened off the mountain side). The slab of rock/ice is a slightly less campaign specific version...
58) Another one I've used: The party is fighting on a frozen lake/river. Fire spells/auras/zones/attacks melt the ice in any square they target, each round of fire weakening it more.
Round 1: Water covers the ice. Anyone crossing it must make an Acrobatics check or fall prone.
Round 2: The top couple feet of ice melts. It is now difficult terrain.
Round 3: The top square melts. Creatures must now swim in that square and any creature that does so becomes slowed(save ends) unless they have cold resistance/immunity.
Note: In my game, they fought a skirmisher with a fire aura on a frozen river with shattered trees and other debris clogging the shores beside the river, so there were melty and melted bits all over the place that weren't there at the start of the battle.
Battlefield chaos: If the party is fighting on a larger battlefield, random effects happen.
59) Rain of arrows: "Off-screen" archers of either side unleash a flight of arrows that target a group of their enemies on the battlefield (though friendlies might be caught in the attack as well!)
60) Stray trebuchet: A massive boulder (1x1x1, 2x2x2, 3x3x3 or bigger!) crashes down somewhere on the battlefield. At lower levels, it lands somewhere where it doesn't hit anyone, at higher, it might make an attack roll against them for massive damage, prwning, and/or restrainment. If it misses, they shift out of the way of it.
61) Greek fire/magical flames: A blast of fire strikes the battle, lighting things on fire in a burst 1-2 and possibly spreading.
62) Loose horses/worgs/elephants/other mounts run through the battlefield, trampling those in their path. Creatures can make athletics checks to snag one as they go by and so have a mount for the rest of the encounter (and maybe longer!)
63) Enemies with banners/sharpened stakes: An enemy leader has a banner that they plant, functioning like the player ones (granting bonuses to X to any enemy within 5 of them). Other enemies might have stakes that they plant in the ground, dealing damage to anything that moves through them from a certain direction.
64) Crumbling wall: The wall/structure the encounter takes place on is crumbling. Each turn, some part of it breaks off, creatures on them can make Athletics checks to leap to safety, and the squares next to the areas that broke become difficult terrain as they crack(and they will fall off next round).
57 or whatever we're at) The PCs are on a giant slab of ice/rock that breaks off and begins sliding down a mountain side/glacier. It tilts from side to side, forward and back as it goes down the mountain. Creatures must make Acrobatics or Athletics checks at the starts of their turns or fall prone. At the end of each creature's turn, they slide 1 or 2 squares towards which-ever edge the slab is currently leaning towards.
Note: In my game, everyone was instead inside a giant treaded vehicle (imagine a fantasy semi-steampunk Jawa sand crawler) traveling down a mountain road. Two of the characters were inside being transported to a Hegemony (evil empire) base and were busted out of their cells by a Resistance agent just as the other two characters assaulted the top of the crawler by airship. The agent's sabotage destroyed the breaks, sending the vehicle careening down the road as the PCs fought their way through the Hegemony troopers and elite Dragoons to escape (by leaping back onto the airship as the crawler careened off the mountain side). The slab of rock/ice is a slightly less campaign specific version...
58) Another one I've used: The party is fighting on a frozen lake/river. Fire spells/auras/zones/attacks melt the ice in any square they target, each round of fire weakening it more.
Round 1: Water covers the ice. Anyone crossing it must make an Acrobatics check or fall prone.
Round 2: The top couple feet of ice melts. It is now difficult terrain.
Round 3: The top square melts. Creatures must now swim in that square and any creature that does so becomes slowed(save ends) unless they have cold resistance/immunity.
Note: In my game, they fought a skirmisher with a fire aura on a frozen river with shattered trees and other debris clogging the shores beside the river, so there were melty and melted bits all over the place that weren't there at the start of the battle.
Battlefield chaos: If the party is fighting on a larger battlefield, random effects happen.
59) Rain of arrows: "Off-screen" archers of either side unleash a flight of arrows that target a group of their enemies on the battlefield (though friendlies might be caught in the attack as well!)
60) Stray trebuchet: A massive boulder (1x1x1, 2x2x2, 3x3x3 or bigger!) crashes down somewhere on the battlefield. At lower levels, it lands somewhere where it doesn't hit anyone, at higher, it might make an attack roll against them for massive damage, prwning, and/or restrainment. If it misses, they shift out of the way of it.
61) Greek fire/magical flames: A blast of fire strikes the battle, lighting things on fire in a burst 1-2 and possibly spreading.
62) Loose horses/worgs/elephants/other mounts run through the battlefield, trampling those in their path. Creatures can make athletics checks to snag one as they go by and so have a mount for the rest of the encounter (and maybe longer!)
63) Enemies with banners/sharpened stakes: An enemy leader has a banner that they plant, functioning like the player ones (granting bonuses to X to any enemy within 5 of them). Other enemies might have stakes that they plant in the ground, dealing damage to anything that moves through them from a certain direction.
64) Crumbling wall: The wall/structure the encounter takes place on is crumbling. Each turn, some part of it breaks off, creatures on them can make Athletics checks to leap to safety, and the squares next to the areas that broke become difficult terrain as they crack(and they will fall off next round).
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