Collaborative Cave!

[der_kluge]

Sounds like I have a rival for room #12.

Any votes on which encounter people like better?

I think both ideas have merit, but I'd rather see something more along the lines of a puzzle/trap/weird thing going on there.

Personally, I'm not a huge fan of either kobolds, or lizardmen, so I'm slightly more into the idea of having something like a black pudding here, just because they're used so infrequently.

What might be neat is to have a room filled with bones - the servants remove the bones of the dragons' meals. So as to not garner unwanted attention, rather than tossing them out of the cave (it's difficult for non-dragons to leave, anyway), they store all the old bones somewhere. Maybe a yellow mold has taken to living in the area.

Doesn't have to be room 12, thuogh.

*shrug*

Technically, no one has claimed that room yet.

 

[Conaill]

Personally, I'm not a huge fan of either kobolds, or lizardmen, so I'm slightly more into the idea of having something like a black pudding here, just because they're used so infrequently.

Don't like kobolds? Goblins it is, then!

The reason I like the goblin band is to have some "opponents" who are (1) intelligent, and (2) not necessarily out to kill the party. That opens up a whole range of interesting interactions. For example:

- The goblin band only intends to use the PCs as bait for the black pudding, so they themselves can escape. They may need to cut down some of the straggler PCs if they get in the way, but their primary goal is to get the heck outtta there. The average hack-and-slash group of PCs will probably wind up taking on the pudding *and* the goblins at the same time... serves them right!

- Once they've managed to escape, some of the goblins may decide to trail the PCs and see if they can steal some of their loot

- The young goblin may serve as a (not entirely thrustworthy) guide for the PCs. Gives the PCs someone to talk to for a change, and allows the DM to interject some clues and/or to elaborate on the history of the cave complex.

 

[Conaill]

Technically, no one has claimed that room yet.

Fine, I'll claim the room... with the understanding that I'll gladly give it up to Land Outcast if people like his idea much better than mine.

Call it right of first refusal, if you wish.


[Edit: Hmm... maybe I'll make a new critter: Watery Ooze - a variant Black Pudding that's completely shapable and doesn't have the Split SQ, but looks like a pool of water and climbs at only 1/2 normal climbing speed (i.e. 1/8 normal ground speed)]

 

[Elephant]

I just wanted to point out the following link to the people criticizing my vicious choker:

http://d20npcs.wikia.com/wiki/Choker_Assassin,_"Ek_Gub"

 

[Land Outcast]

puzzle/trap

That you want that?
Oi oi, then I'll see what I can do about it.
(Feel free to discard or accept the encounter I presented, but make sure to tell me the decision )

 

[Land Outcast]

Another option would be changing the lizardfolks to goblins...

Other option would be the one of the golem...

a clay golem (CR 10) guarding something. The dragons might know it's there, but aren't really strong enough to kill it. As long as they keep the door shut, it quietly guards whatever it was tasked with. The golem never leaves the area.

[sblock=Golem]
He is guarding a door carved with Arcane Symbols (TM)
(or what seems to be a door and is really a portal which activates when the golem is given the correct *answer*... that would explain why the dragons didn't just dig and found the room behind the door)

The golem speaks -through a magic mouth- to whoever comes within 20ft of him:

Golem: "Only those knowing the answer can get through"
PC: *any speech*
Golem: *Poses the question* "Now, tell me the correct answer or depart! Depart from this room or from the realm of the living, you choose!"

and waits until a right -or wrong- answer is announced; then respectively allows passage through the door, or attacks the one who answered (and whoever attacks him or tries to get to the door without saying the answer).
[/sblock]

ok, that was lame...

 

[Land Outcast]

Possible encounter:
*A tunneling team of Duergar has found this complex, and sent Scouts and Warriors to do reckoning.

Possible addition to an encounter:
*A rogue Thquoaa has just found this place, and when it tunnels through the wall into the water, the room is filled with steam.

Possible addition to an encounter (or an encounter in itself):
*Assassin Vine, grapples creatures and tries to drown them.

 

[Conaill]

I just wanted to point out the following link to the people criticizing my vicious choker:

http://d20npcs.wikia.com/wiki/Choker_Assassin,_"Ek_Gub"

Note that that one doesn't do two spells a round (it has a small number of Assassin spells, but none of those would really benefit from doing two in a round), and actually has his Int maxed out (even including a headband of intellect). That makes it a better balanced and more believable character in my opinion.

Still pretty damn nasty though!

 

[Elephant]

Again, why does a Cha-based caster need to have a high Int to be 'believable' to you? Why does the choker need to be a genius to instinctively release a sort of magical adrenaline before a battle?

Thinking in those terms, even an animal of Int 1 could reasonably use the buffing spells I've listed.

Besides, I didn't give him any gear. His class levels are all the weaker for it.

Also, Int is the *casting stat* for Assassins.

 

[Conaill]

Eh - just seems weird to me that this greatest of all living chokers would be of only middling intelligence for its kind - i.e. about as dumb as a rock - yet be able to use fourteen different magical spells, each of which requires its own set of complex incantations and arcane gestures.

Sure, it's not against the rules. I would just feel more comfortable if such a truly exceptional specimen was at least only somewhat of a blithering idiot.

This is just my own preference of course. Int score of 6 for example would make it a lot more palatable for me. Less min-maxed, but more of a "viable" creature - something you might actually expect to be able to survive long enough to gain four times its normal amount of hit dice, plus another six PC character class levels.