D&D 5E 5 Essential Encounters in a Wizard's Tower

[Reynard]

My Avernus PCs are back in Elturel (at 11th level) and are just about ready to crack open the Companion and bring about the beginning of the end. Before that, though, they have to retrieve a magic carpet from the tower of an eccentric wizard that used to live in the city. You know, before it got sucked into Hell.

So, what are some essential encounters for early 3rd tier PCs to find and have to contend with in a wizard's tower. Note that this is intended to be a fun, even silly, excursion before everything gets exceedingly deadly and serious.

 

[Scott Christian]

I once made a magic book. Each time it was opened the pages would flutter, and then it would land on a page. (d20 table) Some of the pages were great, others dangerous, and others would trigger things inside the tower. The last part is so they would have to keep interacting with the book. There were ways (arcana checks and another companion book full of riddles) that detailed how to open the book to the right pages. But that was in another room. They had the same title, but one was printed in a different font and mirrored upside down and backwards (through Word). The players had a lot of fun with it, as some of the pages were very whimsical.

 

[Scott Christian]

A potion making station. Full of ingredients. I once made a book full of logic puzzles that corresponded to the ingredients and the way they were combined. Three steps, like:
- after heating the black ingredient using the candle, place it in the glass tube.
Thing is there were three black ingredients, two candles, and two glass tubes. But the directions in the book say things like:

• only the black mushroom can be heated
• all mushrooms need to be heated with the small candle
• Never let a black ingredient touch stained glass

Of course this is only fun to players if they like riddles.

 

[Scott Christian]

Illusions of mimics - everywhere.

I've never done it before, but I have thought of it before. Just to make the PC's terrified of touching anything. Wall sconce - mimic. Chest - mimic. Chair - Mimic. Bed sheets - mimic. Stair railing - mimic.

If your tower is themed, then it could match the tower's designer's school of magic.

And what is nice, is that these illusions could also be red herrings to the real secret passageways. They can also be used as some clever puzzle, such as:
"Find my minions,
though real they are not.
Feed them silver,
To spew secrets forgot."
Or something corny like that. Then mix in real danger right next to the illusory mimics, like poison needles, traps, and arcane runes.

 

[Scott Christian]

Last one, I swear.

If you go the illusionist route, you can't beat two golems that have "mirror image" cast on them. It would make for one scary encounter. Inside each golem could be a gem or some other conduit of the tower's creator's power. The golems could have been gifts from a past lover, another wizard, king, or lich (or maybe demon or devil since they are going that way) and referenced in a book prior to the PC's encounter. This might give them time to dispel the mirror image or do something to negate it.

 

[DemoMonkey]

Three words:

Animated chamber pot.

 

[WayOfTheFourElements]

Swimming pool filled with acid. Overly aggressive pool boys.

 

[Baldurs_Underdark]

My 2 cents on essential encounters in a wizard's tower:

Essential:

• A room full of traps and illusions - flavoring depends on the school of magic of your wizard
• An animated armor or something similar
• A golem

Flavoring, depending on your taste and depending on the type of wizard:

• A pack of blink dogs
• A zoo full of aberrations (cages open with a trigger plate or some other trap)
• An intelligent zombie (the sidekick of the wizard)
• An awoken animal, e.g. lion, bear, croc or gorilla that fights intelligent and has lair actions

 

[Ancalagon]

Tiny servants. Tiny servants everywhere.

The tower is made of bricks, every brick, a tiny servant.

 

[WayOfTheFourElements]

For anyone interested, I posted a short low-level adventure, which takes place in a wizard's cottage:

D&D 5E - Horseshoes for Modrons

A couple night ago, ran a fun adventure for a group of new players and thought I would share it with the community. Enjoy. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

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